Fate's Remnant: Shared Ideals
by Grafian
Summary: Post-UBW Shirou Emiya finds himself mysteriously transported to Remnant and in the employ of Headmaster Ozpin. He gets approached to enroll at Beacon Academy to watch over and tutor a young girl with eerily similar ideals to his... Where will Fate and his blasted E-rank Luck take him? - Will deviate heavily from RWBY canon storyline, so consider it an AU.
1. Chapter 1 - Partners

**Author's Note**

* * *

Hi there folks! This is the result of my forays into the Fate Stay/Night Crossover section on FFnet. I will readily admit to never really having liked the RWBY show, but that changed after a number of amazing fanfics I found on this site. I guess it finally got to the point where I couldn't stop myself from trying my hand at my own crossover... *_Dramatic sigh_*.

The Shirou in this fic originates from an UBW path, although a few years further down the line. The how and why of his transport to Remnant from his own dimension is as of yet unknown to him, but will slowly be revealed later down the line. I really hope you guys like the approach I'm going to take. It's a little different from the 'Blame Zelretch' approach... :)

I will also warn you all in advance that I won't be following the exact same (order of) events as the canon RWBY story. The overarching plotline and tensions will still be there, but I have a number of defining changes in mind for the world of Remnant that throw everything just a little off-balance. Anyways, enough with the teasing! I hope you'll enjoy the first chapter of Shared Ideals!

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Fate or RWBY.**

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Partners**

* * *

"Looking forward to your first year at Beacon Academy, Shirou?".

Shirou Emiya found himself sitting opposite the peculiar headmaster of the aforementioned academy, having tea. Clearly seeing Ozpin's amused, barely present smirk, he let out a deep sigh. It had been nearly six months since he unexpectedly woke up in the Emerald Forest near the Academy. Six months of research with Ozpin. And nothing. Nothing to indicate how he got there from his dimension, nothing to indicate how he could possibly get back. If it hadn't been for the freelance hunting contracts he had picked up with Ozpin's help, he'd have gone insane by now...

"I still don't see why you find it necessary for me to attend classes here. I don't have a Semblance, nor am I even capable of using Aura. I only further risk exposing myself. And you seem to think I have already accepted your offer".

Opposite from him, the grey haired Ozpin took a number of infuriatingly slow sips from his Beacon Academy-mug, containing hot cocoa. While he was still somewhat wary of the secretive man, and frequently annoyed by his antics, Shirou couldn't deny that Ozpin did have the best intentions for this world. And with the man being a closet Magus (or magician as he hinted to calling himself), he was most likely his best lead in someday finding a way back to his own world.

"That may be so, although your 'Tracing' as you call it, can easily be interpreted as your own unique Semblance", Ozpin started. "And don't forget, you yourself wished to aid us in our fight against the Grimm and Salem, did you not?".

Grimacing, Shirou realized once more that sharing his ideals with the opportunistic man, however good his intentions may be, was probably a mistake.

"Yes. I can't just stand by and watch... But that's exactly why attending an Academy seems like a waste of time, especially if things are moving as fast as you claim they are".

"I will admit that your magecraft gives you a significant advantage...". Once more Shirou had to reign in his annoyance as the man took a break to take a few more slow sips of his cocoa.

"And yet you alone are no match for an immortal being with an army of billions of Grimm. You're going to need trustworthy and capable allies, Shirou. And what better way to ensure that they're capable than personally having a hand in seeing their potential reached?".

With a frown Shirou held back his comments. Unlimited Blade Works possessed weapons capable of slaying immortals... Immortals of his world, at least. Could they do the trick? Perhaps. He couldn't deny the numbers advantage of the enemy, however. And while he was used to handling things solo, Rin did hammer it into his brain on multiple occasions (with painful Gandr-shots) that he should rely on others too. But tutoring... He had never really taught anyone anything. Save for teaching Sakura how to cook, and it didn't take her long to reach a level equal, if not surpassing, himself.

Having finished the last of his cocoa, Ozpin put down his mug and leaned forward. The amused smirk left his face, being traded in for a more serious expression.

"The coming batch of first years has a number of interesting candidates who I believe will have great parts to play in the coming conflict, Shirou. But there is one in particular I feel would be a good fit for you and who could also benefit greatly from your tutoring...".

Interested, and glad that Ozpin finally decided to stop fooling around, Shirou raised an eyebrow "And who might that be?".

"First, I should tell you a story about legendary warriors. Warriors with silver eyes...".

* * *

It was roughly two hours later that Shirou was left sitting in front of Ozpin's desk in a daze. Four years of school... Was that really something he wanted to do? Granted... The girl would need protection and proper training if Ozpin's stories could be trusted, but it would take a long time before they would make any capable allies by attending the school as a Huntsman-in-training.

But then again, he had just been told thousands of years worth of history, which seemed somewhat unbelievable at first. Two brother-deities... Salem being an immortal witch? He had known of the four Maidens due to earlier conversations, up to some extent, but hearing that they were being kept safe and hidden away scattered around the world in the hopes that they could become proficient enough in their powers to make a stand before they were hunted down... It was very grim, pun not intended.

"I will still let you take missions outside of the regular team training missions that start after the first six months, if they don't interfere with your classes at Beacon, of course" the smirking headmaster stated.

Shirou realized he had little reason not to at this point. Six months in this world and he had found no clue as to how he was transported here from his own world, nor any hint as to how to get back. And even if he could get back, what was waiting for him back 'home'? He and Rin broke up, and he had lost contact with Sakura years ago... Coming here had somehow turned back his body into how he looked not too long after leaving Japan. He estimated himself to be about nineteen, biologically speaking. He was somewhat weaker now, he had to admit. Could he still stand up to the inevitable Enforcers trying to claim his Sealing Designate contract if he went back now...? And when it came to his 'solo' efforts in Remnant so far... Sure, he had slayed a few hordes of Grimm all in all, but how much difference does that really make in a world filled with billions of them?

Letting out a deep sigh, already having lost track of how often he had done so during this particular talk, he considered his own terms. It was clear Ozpin wanted, if not _needed_ him to take him up on his offer, so he might as well try to have this deal end up in his favour, right? Another thing Rin had managed to hammer into his head during their time at the Clock Tower. _"Don't just do things for the sake of helping people, Shirou! That's how you get taken advantage of you baka!"_.

He resisted the urge to chuckle as he remembered his tsundere ex-girlfriend - immediately sending a silent prayer to any pantheon willing to listen to _never _let her know he called her a tsundere in his thoughts. The results would be... far from pleasant. Probably something revolving around a flood of Gandr-curses aimed at his head.

"If I'm going to be living here, I assume I'll be sharing a dorm room of sorts with my eventual team?" he asked calmly, receiving a simple nod in return.

"Then I'm going to need a separate place to conduct my research and work on my magecraft. I didn't exactly come to this world with my workshop in tow, so I'm going to need space to rebuild it and my library from scratch". That was really his most important requirement. A secure, mostly out of the way place to set up a workshop.

Ozpin gave in without so much as sparing it a second to consider. "Very well. One of the older buildings on campus is largely, if not completely unused. Would an empty classroom there suffice? There should be ample furniture left inside the building you can use as you see fit".

Having said that, the illusive headmaster cocked an eyebrow and asked "Come to think of it... Didn't you already have a 'workshop', as you called it, in the city?".

Shirou nodded, doing his best not to show his acceptance to the whole plan now that his one real demand was met. "That's correct. However, you can't expect me to commute back and forth every night between Beacon and the city just to practice and work on my research. That just wouldn't be practical". As expected, with his curiosity sated, Ozpin gave in.

It didn't take them too long to finish up their conversation, with Shirou getting a few more small benefits out of the negotiations. Mostly centered on sponsored research samples of varying Dust crystals and to him foreign types of metals to experiment with. The only concession Ozpin requested was that he shared any beneficial results of said experiments with him if they could be used to further their shared fight against the Grimm. Something Shirou saw no point in arguing against, as it would only help both of them in the end.

As he got up to leave the Headmaster's office, he was halted with a final message from Ozpin. "Oh Shirou, Glynda asked me to give you a message. She said you would know what it meant?".

Glynda Goodwitch. A professor at Beacon Academy and an accomplished Huntress at that. She had been assigned by Ozpin to measure Shirou's skill during his first few contracts, and while she generally held up an icy, emotionless mask, he dared say he had broken through that facade on several occasions as they slaughtered hordes of Grimm together. Interested, he gestured for the man to continue.

It was rare to see the illusive Ozpin, who always seemed to know what one was thinking, genuinely puzzled, so Shirou savoured every splendid moment of it as he relayed the message. Once he was done, he couldn't help but laugh all the way back to the elevator, leaving Ozpin in the dark about the meaning of it.

"_Storm of Swords. 8PM sharp. Something new, don't disappoint_". In his mind, he was already flicking through suitable blueprints for their meet-up.

* * *

Ruby Rose, the youngest student of Beacon Academy since... Well... Youngest, period. As far as she knew at least. She had been so nervous, but glad to be in the same year as her older sister, Yang. Of course Yang left her alone the instant they debarked from the Airship that brought them to Beacon. And _of course_ she had to immediately make a bad impression on someone that, by all accounts, seemed far more impressive than her. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company.

As she plopped down on the ground, defeated and close to tears before the day even truly started, she muttered to herself "Welcome to Beacon, Ruby...".

Why did everything have to be against her?! She only wanted to make a good first impression, be a normal girl despite the age difference making sure she knew next to nobody here... Just when she lost all hope, a warm voice sounded from next to her as the bright sunlight was blocked by someone's shadow.

"Need a hand there?".

She was about to complain and mutter something along the lines of 'just leave me alone', when she looked up into two golden eyes looking at her with concern. She couldn't help but be surprised by his appearance for a moment. He couldn't be more than a few years older than her, and yet his hair had turned mostly white already. There remained only a few streaks of what must have been his natural red hair.

"Eh, miss?".

She blinked a few times, her thoughts interrupted. 'Oh right!'. She finally grabbed hold of his outstretched hand and let him pull her back up to her feet with surprising ease. She chuckled nervously as a slight blush took hold of her cheeks.

"S-sorry I must have spaced out there for a second. Thanks!".

After she was standing on her own two feet again she hurriedly added "Oh, I'm Ruby Rose, by the way!". He at least seemed nicer than Weiss... Maybe he could be her first friend here!

He gave her a genuinely warm smile as he replied. "Shirou Emiya. It's nice to meet you, Ruby".

"Likewise!" she chirped back. They soon decided to make their way towards the auditorium (after realizing they were the last ones left outside), while she felt her lips tug into a smile.

As they chatted about this and that, Ruby stealthily glanced across her new friend's equipment. While there were definitely a couple of students that seemed to wear various types of armour, some even wearing metal plate armour sets, most clearly relied more on their respective aura's to mitigate damage - herself included.

Shirou seemed to be part of the group that favoured armour, albeit a lighter kind. He was wearing some type of tight body armour and looser fitting combat pants. Both black with simple, silver detailing. Even his black shoes were outfitted with metal plating that looked more than a little dangerous in a fight.

What truly caught her attention, however, was his long, crimson overcoat that gently fluttered in the soft breeze. It looked almost regal, with its simple, yet eye-catching gold detailing. On the left breast of his coat she could see his symbol, the personal mark of any Huntsman or Huntress; a strung bow, with a sword in place of the expected arrow. And yet, however much she looked, she could find no weapons on his person. Quite odd, especially for someone who was so clearly outfitted for combat.

"Something on your mind?".

Somewhere along their conversation she must have stopped paying attention to what they were talking about and fallen silent, inspecting his equipment. It took her a moment to think of something to say, before she blurted the first thing that popped into her mind.

"CanIseeyourweapons?".

The boy blinked a few times in surprise at her _very _rapid reply, but chuckled as he caught on.

"Ahh, so that's why you were so intensely looking over my body. Trying to figure out what kinds of weapons I use...".

As Ruby's cheeks started to redden, he gave her a teasing smirk, before he added with a raised eyebrow "For a moment there I thought you were shamelessly checking out my behind, miss Rose".

* * *

Shirou did his best to keep himself from chuckling at the girl's flustered, sputtering denial. Really, he had underestimated how susceptible Ruby was to teasing. Maybe Rin had been a bad influence on him...? Yeah, definitely.

Taking pity on the young girl, he reached both hands out of sight underneath the flaps of his overcoat and quietly muttered under his breath.

"_Trace on_".

As if drawn from mysteriously hidden sheathes, he pulled back his hands and presented Ruby with his two favoured blades; the twin Chinese falchions, Kanshou and Bakuya.

She instantly stopped her sputtering and her gaze locked onto his blades like a hawk. For a moment, he could have sworn her silver eyes took the shape of stars, before she almost as if in a trance slowly started reaching out to them.

Chuckling, and content with her response to the married swords, he held them out for her to hold. With barely concealed awe she took them and was clearly a little surprised by their weight.

"Wow... These are quite heavy" she muttered as she gave them a few simple practice swings. "And _so beautiful!_".

Shirou had known the girl was a weapons-nut, having gleamed the history of her own unique weapon; Crescent Rose - both a scythe and a high powered sniper rifle. While he could see the benefit of rifles and pistols, part of him would always find it wrong to see traditional weapons intermixed with them. And yet those chimera-like weapons seemed to be the standard, not the exception in Remnant.

"Where did you get these? And do they have names? Did you make them yourself? Can they turn into guns too? Oh! Oh, maybe they snap together and turn into a rifl-".

Which is where he cut her off. Smiling awkwardly he said as calmly as he could "Slow down, Ruby. I won't be able to keep up if you ask so many questions".

He could see she once more looked a little embarrassed, which only caused him to chuckle again. Hoping to calm her down a little, he almost instinctively put a hand on the shorter girl's black hair and gently ruffled it. Everything about her, down to her shy nature when not talking about weapons, just gave off that little sister vibe that strongly reminded him of Sakura.

Due to those stray thoughts, he missed how his ruffling of her hair only darkened her blush even further. Meanwhile, he started answering her questions one by one. Twisting the truth somewhat, he shared their names and decided to state he got them from a previous instructor who taught him how to wield them properly.

While it felt like she twisted a knife in his pride when she seemed saddened that they were _just_ swords, unlike the crazy death traps they called weapons in this world, he did his best not to look too offended. Sadly, she seemed to have noticed the twitch in his calm expression, as she quickly apologized.

"N-n-not that there's anything wrong with that! It's good to find someone that appreciates the classics".

As she looked them over once more she added with her previous awe somewhat returning "And I can tell they were expertly forged, and well maintained ever since! There's not even a scratch on them...".

As Shirou hesitated telling her the legend of how Kanshou and Bakuya were forged, because so far everyone he told the story to had reacted with varying degrees of shock, they reached the auditorium were the introduction speech was to be held. As they passed through the doors, almost immediately both their attention was drawn by a shout.

"Rubes! Over here, I saved you a spot!". The shout seemed to originate from a tall, blonde girl with lilac eyes and... well, Shirou could only describe it as revealing clothing. A brown leather jacket that seemed to be worn in such a fashion it over-accentuated her generous cleavage, while her neck was adorned with an orange scarf. Finishing her outfit, was a short, half-open skirt over black hotpants and high, leather boots.

His trained eyes, however, were not pulled to her obviously flaunted cleavage, but to her bracelets; Ember Celica. Once activated, they would expand to cover her forearms like gauntlets - with built-in shotguns. 'Really though, what is it with this world and their obsession with turning _everything_ into firearms...' he thought to himself disapprovingly. Still, he could gleam from the weapon's history that her fighting style was more than effective. Brutal and simple, but definitely effective.

As the older girl took Ruby in a headlock, to the younger girl's obvious, sputtering disapproval, she smirked towards Shirou and teasingly asked "Hmm handsome, for a moment there I was assuming you were trying to woo my adorable, weapon-crazed, little sister with your swords... But judging by the way you're shamelessly ogling me, it seems you're more interested in me, no?".

Realizing she was obviously trying to get a rise out of him, he just raised an eyebrow. It took some effort to prevent himself from blushing, but while this girl - Ruby's sister apparently - was clearly decent at teasing... She was no Rin Tohsaka. Fairly level-headed, he returned her smirk with his own. "Actually, I'm more interested in those shotgun gauntlets".

She blinked a few times, clearly surprised, before she chuckled. "Well alright then, maybe you're a decent guy after all". As she gave Ruby a nookie, she teasingly added "But if you toy with my little sister's heart I'm still going to break your legs, though!".

"YANG! I-it's not like that, we just met outside that's all" Ruby managed to sputter as she wrested herself free from her older sister's headlock. Her pleading gaze shifted between the two, before she settled on Shirou. More than a little flustered she quietly said "S-sorry Shirou... Yang can be a little... eh, well, Yang".

He just chuckled and ruffled the younger girl's hair, which only served to deepen her blush to an almost unhealthy shade of red. "As expected of an older sister, of course".

Turning to the blonde girl, he gave her a smile and said "Shirou Emiya. It's nice to meet Ruby's sister. Yang, was it?".

She watched on with an amused smile as he ruffled Ruby's hair, before the corners of her lips seemed to twitch into a teasing position, promising little good for her younger sister. "It's a pleasure, Shirou~. Yang Xiao Long. Now... On the matter of my innocent little sister... What do you have to offer that would make you worthy of becoming my brother-in-law? She's quite the catch, you know, so we can't just give her away to the first man trying to claim her precious heart".

Ruby was once more sputtering, but before she could jump her sister in retaliation, Shirou hummed, as if deep in thought and put on his best, serious expression. He had not survived a relationship with Rin without picking up a thing or two... He put a hand to his chin and stared off into the distance in a classical thinking pose.

"I'm not too sure what you're looking for, but I'm not averse to doing household chores. I am also quite proud of my skills as a cook...".

Yang's teasing was ground to a halt by his seemingly serious answer, whereas Ruby was frozen in place like a statue made out of tomatoes. With a small smile, he snapped his fingers, simultaneously dispelling the swords still held by Ruby and projecting new ones in his hands. After a flourish, and a yelp of surprise from the younger girl once she realized what happened, he smiled.

"And I suppose I have a way with weapons".

It was dead silent for a few seconds, as Ruby's mouth was opening and closing like a fish on dry land. A very flustered fish. Yang was staring at him in disbelief, before she started laughing and turned back to her sister.

"Rubes, you flirt! Where did you say you find this catch again?".

The girl was still stunned, shifting her incredulous and flustered gaze between her older sister and Shirou, seemingly looking for help out of the situation. Taking pity on the girl, he smiled and said in a calming voice "Don't worry Ruby, we're just joking".

At that point he looked around, noticing the small crowd that had gathered around them to look at their antics. As he met a few eyes with a raised eyebrow and another fast spin of the falchions in his hands, they quickly turned away. Noticing them for the first time now, Ruby looked around in a panic, nodded to Shirou and quickly pulled up her hood to hide from all the attention. "A-alright, i-if you say so" she managed to sputter out in a soft voice.

Shirou felt a little sorry, seeing the girl so embarrassed, but before he could say anything to apologize, Ozpin and Glynda stepped onto the stage to start the introduction.

Ozpin looked more than a little distracted as he started his speech, something that made Shirou a little wary. Did something happen? Shaking away the thoughts, he instead did his best to listen to the... lackluster speech, which left more than a few of the prospective Huntsmen and Huntresses demotivated.

"You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. When you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But when I look at you, all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step".

While Shirou did his best to frown disapprovingly at the man for his failure of a motivational speech, he calmly strolled off the stage without so much as sparing anyone present a glance, all the while making a show of leaning on his cane - even if it was clear to everyone with a brain he didn't need to. Goodwitch stepped up to finish the introduction and give some instructions, while Shirou turned back to face the two sisters. They had equally disillusioned looks compared to most of the people present.

"It's like he wasn't even really here..." Ruby muttered, after which Yang just shrugged and pulled her closer by her arm.

"Oh well, never mind him sis. Let's go find some food instead!". That luckily seemed to cheer the younger girl up and Shirou could only chuckle at her rapid mood shift. Before he could walk off, however, Yang turned to him and asked in a teasing voice as she grabbed one of his arm with her remaining one. "You coming, handsome?".

He had actually been planning to go explore Beacon itself a little, pick a classroom in the abandoned building to set up a workshop, considering that despite his regular contract work through Ozpin, he had rarely set foot inside the Academy itself. But when Ruby turned to him too, with those puppy dog eyes and a shy, sweet smile peeking out from underneath her red hood, he could only sigh in defeat and allow the blonde to drag him along - to her loud cheers of victory.

* * *

"Whatcha doing, Rubes?". Yang teasingly asked her as she plopped down on the bedroll next to her.

"Just writing a letter to the gang back at Signal" she replied smiling as she thought of her friends back on Patch. "I promised to tell them all about Beacon before I left!".

"Aawww, you're so adorable sis!" Yang cooed, which she quickly cut off by throwing a pillow in her sister's face.

"It's not funny Yang. I didn't get to take all my friends with me, like you. It's bad enough not knowing anyone here..." she complained under her breath. She never had been very good at making friends. Her group back at Signal Academy on their home island had known each other since they were just little kids, which had greatly helped. The thought alone of trying to make new friends here, while she was two years younger than everyone else to boot, was menacing to her.

And yet, her older sister just waved it away. "Don't be so glum! Look around you, potential friends everywhere!".

Ruby looked around as Yang said, but failed to see anyone she had the nerve to walk up to. "I don't know..." she muttered. "I only really need Crescent Rose... That's the best partner I could hope for!" she tried half-heartedly.

Yang just shook her head disapprovingly, before she snapped her fingers and gave her a teasing smile. "Then what about Shirou~? He seemed nice, didn't he?".

She could feel her face start to heat up, so she hid it behind the letter she was only half working on. "W-well... H-he's nice, y-yes...". She had never really been all that interested in boys. They had always been far too childish, even if she herself wasn't all that mature in her opinion. Not to mention her obvious lack of social skills. And yet she couldn't deny how nervous she got whenever Shirou smiled at her...

Either her sister ignored her stuttering, or she simply didn't notice it, something she hoped for but found hard to believe. "See! There you go, your first friend at Beacon. And how hard was it really to meet him?".

She took a moment to consider that... "Well... He kind of just walked up to me when I was lying on the ground outside. So... Not that hard?".

Yang only smiled triumphantly "Told you. So, let's go and find your first friend! The first few days are the most important in a friendship. You've got to claim him before someone else does so you're guaranteed to have a good partner, right?".

With her monstrous strength, her sister proceeded to pull her straight up from her bedroll and into the mass of people having set up camp in the ballroom. She could only stutter out apologies whenever Yang marched them right through what looked like groups of friends, stepping on the occasional leg and arm, before they arrived near the end of the ballroom.

"Hmm, we just missed him. I think he went outside..." Yang muttered, more to herself than to Ruby. "Yes Rubes! Go join him on a moonlit walk, how romantic! Quick, before he gets too far away!".

"W-wait I'm in my pyjamas! YAN-" was all she could sputter out before Yang unceremoniously threw her out the door of the ballroom into the cold of night. She landed on her behind, and immediately jumped up to shoot back inside, but all she did was bump into the large, wooden doors. She had a strong suspicion that Yang was holding them shut for her...

As she tried and tried to push through, she realized it wasn't going to work. Yang and her monstrous strength... Then she nearly jumped when a familiar voice rung out from behind her.

"Ruby? What are you doing outside at night?".

* * *

Shirou had just left the ballroom, planning to go find that abandoned building and pick a decent place for his workshop. Contrary to what the girls must have thought, because he had been reinforcing his ears to pick up rumours and such on his way out, he overheard most of their conversation. Really wanting to get started on his workshop, he made haste and hurried out the door.

He only got about twenty meters away from the large, wooden doors, before he heard a familiar yelp, followed by the sound of said doors slamming shut again. For some reason Ruby, the girl he is meant to covertly protect and tutor, was banging on the doors, wearing nothing but a black tank top with a heart-shaped Beowulf design, white pyjama pants with a pink rose motif and slippers.

Het let out a quiet sigh as he looked at the young girl. Clearly not managing to get back inside. 'Yang must be really desperate to get her little sister some friends...' he thought to himself. He had half a mind to just quickly sneak away while she wasn't looking, but then he realized Yang would probably not let her in for a while. And it was a bit cold this late at night. Unlike Ruby, he was still dressed in his combat outfit.

Oh well, he might as well give her an opening to not just awkwardly stand there in the cold. "Ruby? What are you doing outside at night?" he asked as neutrally as he cold.

He had to hold back a chuckle upon seeing her jump up in surprise, as she turned around and dumbly stared at him.

"Ehhhmm... W-well you see.. Eh, I-I eh...".

He hummed in response. "You were... going for a walk, I guess?". The girl happily nodded to that, glad to have gotten an out.

"I see... I guess we had the same idea then" he said with a small smile. "Mind if I accompany you?".

She gave him an adorably happy smile and nodded, to which he could only chuckle and ruffle her hair, which once more served to give her a healthy blush on her cheeks. They proceeded to walk in a random direction, Shirou having pushed aside the thought of setting up his workshop for a later time. They chatted about superficial things, mostly, with Shirou having to hold back a lot of details to not seem out of place in the world of Remnant.

"So, why do you want to become a Huntsman?" she asked him after a while. Hearing a slight stutter in her voice, he looked over, and noticed that she was shivering. Shaking his head as he started taking off his crimson overcoat, he said "You know, if you go out at night, you should remember to bring a coat".

She was a little startled when he gently put it over her shoulders, more like a cape than a coat, seeing how his sleeves would probably be a tad too long for her to wear properly. "T-thanks" she stuttered, giving him a smile as she tried and failed to hide her blush by burying her neck inside the oversized coat. He could only chuckle at her antics. She really did remind him of Sakura.

"To answer your question" he started, causing her to come out of her shell again, once more expectantly looking at him. "I suppose... Ever since I was young I've wanted to become an ally of justice, to save everyone. To become a hero. And I guess that by being a Huntsman, you get the most opportunities to try and do that in this world".

She looked at him with wide eyes and genuine surprise. He had of course long since gotten used to such a response, so he just chuckled. "I know it's a foolish dream. You wouldn't be the first to point out you can't actually save everyone. Saving one often means that someone else needs to die. But still...". He let out a deep sigh as he paused for a moment, lost in memories.

"...it's never wrong to want to help someone".

He had expected many things from the girl walking next to him, wearing his oversized coat, staring at him with her wide eyes and flushed cheeks. He expected her to politely and shyly laugh at his foolish dream, or perhaps for her to point out the flaws in it. But instead, she said something no one else ever had after hearing about his ideals. Something that stunned him for a little while.

"I completely agree".

He stopped walking in surprise, blinking a few times as he inspected her expression. She seemed... completely honest and genuine. Not a trace of doubt anywhere on her face. "You... You do?" he asked her, unable to keep his confusion out of his voice. She just nodded with a warm smile and an honest to god twinkle in her silver eyes.

"Ever since I was little, Yang used to read me stories before bed" she started in a wistful voice. "Stories of heroes and monsters... They're one of the reasons I want to be a huntress! As a girl I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books. Someone who fought for what was right and who protected people who couldn't protect themselves".

For a split second, he wondered 'do I sound this naive and idealistic too...?'. But then he realized he really had no right to think that, as yes... He probably does. He's been told as much countless times. He couldn't help but laugh.

"I... I guess we're the same then, in that regard" he said as soon as he managed to calm himself down. Next to him, the girl nodded with a happy smile.

They continued talking for a little while, as they eventually started making their way back. When the large double doors to the ballroom came back in sight, Shirou could tell Ruby wanted to ask him something. Seeing her twiddle her index fingers together and turn to look at him and open her mouth, before closing it and quickly turning away again from the corner of his eyes was a little amusing. Eventually he just gently asked her what was on her mind, causing her to start a little in embarrassment, before she chuckled nervously.

"Ehm... Well..." she started carefully. After an encouraging nod and smile from him, she asked "Well, would you want to be p-partners? W-with me, I mean?".

As they walked through the doors, he chuckled. "Sure, Ruby. I'm not sure if we get to choose freely, but if it's possible, I think I'd like having you for a partner".

The smile the young girl gave him seemed bright enough to light up the night, before she once more got flustered and stuttered a "thanks" and a "goodnight!", before speeding off in a flutter of rose petals.

"My... coat..." was all he could utter, completely unheard by anyone. Letting out a sigh, he shook his head with a smile as he made his way back over to his chosen sleeping spot. "I'm sure it'll come around eventually..." he muttered to himself, still smiling about his future partner's antics. He was, after all, fairly convinced he'd end up with Ruby as his partner, given Ozpin's wish for him to tutor and protect her.

* * *

Yang barely blinked upon Ruby's return, long since gotten used to her favoured method of travel. She couldn't help but grin as she looked over her beaming younger sister. "I take it things went well with handsome? You were out for over an hour after all...".

Ruby nodded vigorously, not recognizing the slowly building, dangerously teasing tone her sister was using, as she began to regale the tale of their forced evening walk. Yang couldn't help but show her surprise at hearing that Shirou, who had seemed fairly level-headed, seemingly shared in Ruby's earnest and somewhat naive dream of becoming a hero. And when her sister repeated how she asked him to be her partner for the next four years, she felt her lips curl into their usual, teasing smile. It was almost too perfect a match!

"Say Rubes..." she started with a smirk. "Aren't you afraid you're moving a bit too fast?".

Savouring the innocent, confused expression on her younger sister's face, she teasingly chuckled. "Well... I get he's a perfect match for you and all, but already claiming his clothes... I never thought you'd be so forward".

Ruby's cheeks immediately lit up when she looked down and - too her horror - realized she hadn't given back his crimson overcoat before she sped off. She managed to sputter out something along the lines of an accusation towards her older sister about 'kicking her out into the cold night in her pyjama's' before she managed to catch a glimpse of her first friend at Beacon across the ballroom, passing through a door at the side.

As she watched her sister speed off after what she could only assume was her first crush, Yang chuckled to herself as she shook her head at the girl's antics. "I wonder when she realizes she just sped into the men's changing room...".

* * *

What the hell was Ozpin thinking? _Launching _his first year students off of a cliff into a Grimm-infested forest and pairing them up with a partner for the next _four years _simply be first sight. How was he supposed to properly do his job under those conditions? The smirk the man had shot him after he glared in his direction was enough to make him realize Ozpin really had a Zelretch-like streak underneath that calm, illusive visage. This was as much entertainment to the man, as it was a challenge to these huntsmen- and huntresses-in-training. And then they had to make their way through hostile territory to find some ruined temple and recover a relic?

Sighing as he soared through the sky, he Reinforced his body to hopefully give him an edge during his landing. Followed by careful Reinforcements to his eyes, in an attempt to spot Ruby somewhere out there. And after a few seconds of scouring the skies and treetops, his efforts were rewarded in the form of a red and black blur not too far ahead of him as it broke through the green leaves of the Emerald Forest. He had to compliment her on her simple, yet effective landing method. By slowing herself down using the considerable recoil of firing the sniper rifle feature of Crescent Rose, and following it up by slinging the scythe blade itself around sturdy branches, he could only assume she was making a safe landing.

Now then, as for how he was going to reach her... He felt himself sighing once more. He really did sigh too much since coming to Remnant. He blamed it all on Zel-, eh... Ozpin. Weird Freudian slip there? Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he took two small stones from a hidden, inner pocket of his coat. The first time he had done something like this, Rin had fallen to the ground, laughing about how ridiculous it looked. Still, it was hard to argue with the effectiveness of it. Not having _any _ability to use traditional, elemental magecraft meant he simply had to improvise to achieve what other magi could often do instinctively.

He grabbed the tails of his overcoat, with one of his Runestones in each hand. He always kept a number of these hidden away on his person, just in case. Each one was inscribed with one or two specific Runes tailored for various effects that could save his skin in a tough situation. Falling to his death after being launched off of a cliff by a psychopathic headmaster definitely counted in his book. He channelled a trickle of Prana into both Runestones, aiming them upwards into his coat.

**"Tiwaz, Hagalaz" **he muttered, lacing his voice with Prana to aid in focusing his mind towards properly controlling the flow of his Prana. Both stones were inscribed with Tiwaz; Rune of the Sky God and Hagalaz; Rune of 'uncontrolled force' and 'the wrath of nature'. A combination meant to create strong gusts of wind.

By uttering the Runic names he put himself in a state of self-hypnosis to alter his mind to better make use of them. It was a common practice among Magi to do so for their spells, after all. In this specific case, it allowed him to channel only a trickle of Prana into both stones, effectively prolonging the gust of wind from both by sacrificing part of their strength. Resulting in a controlled glide towards where he saw Ruby disappear beneath the dense leaves of the forest as he angled the Runestones to unleash their gusts into the tightly held and spread out overcoat.

Right before he reached the treetops, he felt both Runestones falling apart into dust. That was the most annoying aspect of them; one time use. Never mention there not being enough room on those small stones for more than two Runes at a time, leaving them nothing more than quick, utility-focused tools and wholly unsuitable for most combat-needs. He had even tried experimenting with larger stones, but sadly found after a number of eyebrow-singing explosions, that they simply couldn't handle the energy requirements necessary for more than two Runes. Still, for cases like this... They were almost too perfect.

Not having let up on his bodily Reinforcements, he crashed through the branches with ease, having slowed down enough during his glide not to injure himself in the process. As he was focusing on using the larger, sturdier branches as either stepping stones, or simply evading them all-together, he belatedly noticed a black and red shape. Right beneath him as he came barreling through the last of the branches in his way.

Said shape had just enough time to look up in confusion at the noise coming from above, before her eyes widened and he slammed straight into her. "Oww..." was all that was muttered quietly by the dazed girl he subsequently found himself lying on top of.

* * *

He chuckled as he looked at the happily skipping Ruby Rose next to him. After their initial crash and a few apologies from him, which she waved away, he was relieved to find her more than happy to be partners with him.

"I was really worried when the Headmaster said we'd be partners with the first person to make eye contact with us", she chirped sheepishly. "I was afraid I'd end up with someone terrible, but I got you!".

He did his best to look calm and composed, but the girl's happy smile was infectious, as evident by the corners of his lips tugging up into his own smile.

"I'm sure that everyone at Beacon has both good and bad points as a partner..." he tried to reason, before he gave up upon seeing her slight pout. "But I am happy I just managed to spot you before you went below the leaf cover and was close enough to follow after you".

Sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck as he realized he might have been a bit too precise, he gave her an apologetic glance. "Sorry again for crashing into you, though... The cover was a little denser than I had expected".

She looked genuinely surprised, before he could make out a faint blush as she quickly pulled up her hood and turned her head away.

"S-so you went looking for me specifically?" she asked in a small voice.

"Of course" he immediately replied, seemingly to the shock of the younger girl next to him. "You asked me to be partners yesterday, didn't you?". To which she only wordlessly nodded and otherwise stayed quiet.

Rin (and plenty of others) may have often called him dense, or a blockhead - and he would admit he wasn't the best at social interactions... So if even he could clearly make out that the girl next to him wasn't all too sure of herself and severely lacking in confidence, he concluded it must be pretty bad. Seeing the kind and generally bubbly girl with some deep-rooted insecurity issues, he vowed as her partner - nay! _Her friend_, that he would stamp out those issues whenever he could. Seeing once more how much she reminded him of Sakura only made his desire to help her stronger.

Putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, he halted their steady march through the woods. He waited to make sure she was looking up at him from underneath her hood before he spoke with as warm a smile on his face as he could manage.

"No need to be so surprised Ruby", he started. Upon seeing her owlish blinking, he couldn't help but chuckle a little as he ruffled her hair. "You're a lot of fun to be around, you know. And I thought we got along well yesterday, didn't we?".

That seemed to cheer her up a little, as she gave him a beautiful smile he couldn't help but return. After she took a deep breath and seemed to steady herself a little, she turned to a seemingly random direction and said with confidence clear in her voice "Alright then, partner, let's find those relics!", before she strutted off.

Holding back his laughter, he just sighed and shook his head as he quickly made way after her, noting that she went in the opposite direction of where the temple should be. As he stumbled through a denser pack of shrubs and bushes, he found himself at the edge of a clearing. With Ruby standing a few meters in front of him, Scythe at the ready. Surrounded by what seemed to be a little over two dozen Beowolves.

As he jumped forward and landed at her side, he projected his favoured, married blades and turned to her with a smirk. "You take the ones on the left and I'll take the ones on the right?".

She gave him a similar smirk in return. "Race you to the middle?" she teased him. Her sudden confidence took him a little by surprise, but who was he to judge her battle mode? If anything, he could approve of it.

Chuckling as he shook his head, he threw out Kanshou and Bakuya. With an elegant precision they spun through the air like razor blades. Their anti-monster properties letting them slide straight through the bodies of the Grimm in their way like a knife through butter. He thoroughly enjoyed the gobsmacked expression on his partner's face, which only increased when the blades spun back around as he projected a second, identical pair of falchions - seemingly causing the previous ones to defy all laws of gravity.

"You're going to lose if you just keep gaping like a fish out of water" he teased her. A competitive gleam appeared in her silver eyes, as a dangerous smile curled across her face. In a flurry of movement a human without Reinforced eyes would find impossible to track, she swung her scythe around and pulled a trigger on its handle - letting out a high caliber sniper round that cut straight through the skull of one of the Beowolves on _his_ side, while simultaneously propelling her towards the ones on her side. With a swift flurry of her weapon, two more fell to Crescent Rose's blade.

"Now who's falling behind?" she teased right back. He gave it a split second, before he laughed. "Thanks, I guess? I'll only reach the middle faster now". Seeing the shock in her eyes was worth being distracted enough to almost get hit by a larger Beowolf that had enough of their idle banter. 'Alright... Time to show my partner what you can do with the _classics..._'.

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

So there we have it! The first chapter of Shared Ideals! Shirou has been in Remnant for a while, working as an unlicensed Huntsman with Ozpin's backing... Hmm... And what's the deal between Shirou and Glynda? With Ruby, who might be developing a little crush, as his partner, who do you think will round out their team? Shirou working with Runes, you might ask? Why yes... But just how many of them does he know? And to what degree does he understand them? What _other_ magecrafts can he use? He has had some more time to study since the Grail War, after all... For those of you worrying, he won't be OP, and he is of course still restricted by his Element and Origin.

The second chapter is as good as finished too! I'm just working out the rough plot a bit further before I'll publish it, just to make sure I won't regret anything in it. Couple of days, maybe?

Any thoughts about Chapter 1? Comments? Critique? Please do let me know! I'll do my best to answer them without spoiling any future plotpoints/developments. I suppose this chapter is a good measure of how many words I aim to put into each one. I will generally aim for 10k, but anywhere over 7k can be enough in my eyes if I come to a point where it makes more sense to pick up in the next chapter.

**If you're interested in reading more of my stories, please do check out my profile page! There you can find my 'Fate Salvation' (80k+) WIP fic, which I will be updating again this month (Chapter length aimed at 20k, currently halted on 12k for CH6). On the same day as 'Shared Ideals' debut, however, I will also be publishing chapter 1 of 'Tempered Nerves' - my third 'Fate' fanfic! I will be rotating between these three stories this month, possibly picking up one of my SAO fics again in September. **


	2. Chapter 2 - Lining Up The Pieces

**Author's Note**

* * *

Took a little longer than planned, but Chapter 2 of Shared Ideals has arrived! What teams will end up being formed? This will also be the chapter where you'll start finding changes between the canon RWBY timeline/events and what I have planned :) I hope you will all enjoy it!

**Hey folks! I'm looking for Beta Readers for 'Shared Ideals', as well as one of my other recent Fanfics; 'Tempered Nerves'. If you're interested, please do send me a PM!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Fate Stay/Night, nor RWBY.**

* * *

**Reviews**

* * *

**Blitzneutral69 - **I'm not really one for the 'harem-route' myself :P Who knows, maybe I'll end up changing my mind, but don't expect it.

**SentinalSlice - **Shirou will not have Aura, nor a Semblance :P Different systems, although various techniques might be interchangeable. Aura is after all provided by the Soul, right? The way I see it, it's basically the Remnant-equivalent of Od. And considering _magic_ exists in Remnant... Perhaps it's not all that different... Who knows where the story will take us? O:) And when it comes to combat class, well, we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

**AlexKellar - **You're absolutely right! He does in fact pat her head too much... I'll tone down the creepiness factor a little in the coming chapters haha. Also; Rejoice Glynda-fan!

**Lost Stardust1 - **I always saw his hair and eye colour changing as a side effect of his liberal use of Projection/Tracing at levels unheard of before him. I believe his hair already changed to white in canon before becoming a Counter Guardian and losing faith in his ideals, so I'm not sure if you're reasoning would fly. Still though, it's an interesting idea, just not really the route I'll be taking ;) As for the Tiwaz Rune, I believe the Sky God-aspect has to do with the deity that Tyr was a derivative of, but there's a lot of contradictory information out there on the web. Scholars don't really seem to agree on what Tyr and his mythological predecessor actually represented. In the end, I went with 'Sky God' being a part of his domain, as it was one of the first things I found while looking up Runes. It may not be perfect, but hey, this is a FanFic, not a research paper ;)

**Nijuuken - **What was I thinking!? :O But in all seriousness, thanks mate! And yeah, I get where you're coming from :P I'm a huge fantasy nut myself haha.

**Reishin Amara - **Apologies if you like Jaune as a character, but I don't currently have any plans of using him in the story! I suppose he was turned down in favour of Shirou, considering he's essentially a gamble for Ozpin due to his family's name, who in my opinion definitely knows that Jaune faked his shit. Considering Jaune ran away from home to become a Huntsman (Right...?) and failed to get into Beacon, I might have him roaming around Vale, or perhaps trying his luck at other Academies. But that's a big maybe. There's already a LOT of characters in RWBY and I'm trying to keep it centered around Shirou and Ruby. Too many and it'll get pretty damn hard to write properly :P I am still fairly new to Fanfics/storywriting after all.

**a crashclown - **Off the top of my head I seem to recall that I pretty much word for word copied what Ruby told Blake during their ballroom-camping in the anime. I'm not 100% certain of it, but it was the assumption I was working under :P Apologies if it doesn't quite line up, but I at least didn't intentionally draw her closer to Shirou's ideals than she already is haha.

**All Other Reviews - **Thanks for the praise, feedback and comments everyone!

* * *

**Chapter 2 - Lining up the Pieces**

* * *

"Table six, order up!". "Ribbons, stop lazing around and get these plates to table nine, pronto!". "Blake dear, could you take out the trash real quick?". "Drinks for the couple by the window, hurry up!".

She's marched in days long protests since she was a child. Spent hours upon hours decorating signs advocating Faunus Rights with her parents and their friends. Eventually, when everything went to hell, she even went on several combat missions with her former brethren of the White Fang... So how was it that rush hour at the 'Pasta Palace' in downtown Vale felt so much more exhausting?

Slumped down on a small stool in the alley behind the all you can eat pasta restaurant she managed to find a job at, she hungrily devoured the small dinner that was provided for her by her slave driver of an employer. She's been working a double shift without breaks and finally managed to find some time for a small break. Why couldn't that stingy boss just realize that having too few waiters only meant they could serve fewer customers? Even just one additional pair of hands on the floor could make all the difference!

As she had already feared, halfway through her meal the backdoor of the restaurant swung open as a mop of blue hair made itself known. Orchid, senior waitress and arguably the only nice person working at the demonic hellhole she reluctantly called her job gave her a regretful half-smile.

"Blake dear, I'm really sorry" she started apologetically. "The boss wants you back, three large groups just came in and we need all the help we can get on the floor".

She could only groan half-heartedly. She knew it wasn't Orchid's fault. She also knew their boss made it a point of having employees deliver bad news like this to each other, so they'd feel guilty for saddling their co-workers up with more work if they denied it.

After letting out a deep sigh, Blake quickly shovelled down the remainder of her sparse dinner. The portions for employees were laughable anyway, and it's not like it was more than just plain pasta with some fish-flavoured sauce.

"I'm coming Orchid" she said, doing her best to put up a faux smile for her one and only friend.

"Back into the frying pan we go..." was all she muttered before grabbing her apron hanging on a hook next to the rusty old door. Once more she lamented not having fled just a week or two earlier. She had intended to enroll at Beacon Academy, to try and become a Huntress. But, one thing lead to another and by the time she made it across the border into Vale, the enrollment date had already passed. Not that she had the money for tuition fees anyway. At least by working here she could save up and try next year.

That was all that got her through each gruelling work day... Her dream of one day becoming one of the few openly Faunus Huntresses.

* * *

'Alright, I can do this...' She thought to herself as she hit a switch on her pride and joy; 'Anesidora'. A camera and Hard Light-projector of her own design. Inside it contains a remarkable, Dust-powered storage device with pictures of several dozen weapons. Velvet Scarlatina has no actual weapons of her own, you see. Instead, she can create projections using a revolutionary mixture of (admittedly expensive) Dusts, dubbed Hard Light Dust.

Through her prized camera's lens, a stream of teal light shot out for the 'Projection Anchor' in her right hand. Within half a second, a specter-like Shotgun Blade one of her former classmates at Pharos Academy had carried took shape. Gripping it tightly, she levelled the built in barrel straight for the Ursa Major that came charging towards her. Steeling her shaking hand with her free one, she pulled the trigger. And again. And again. And again.

Four loud shotgun blasts rung out through the small clearing, Hard Light fragmented rounds impacting against the bonelike face of the Grimm. Bits and pieces of jutting out spikes and other protrusions snapped off, while the Ursa Major itself reeled back from the heavy impact and roared in protest.

"Yes! I really _can _do this!" she nearly squealed as she lunged forward, both hands on the projected weapon's grip. Velvet had little weapon training, and under ordinary circumstances, she would have no idea how to properly use such a large, unwieldy greatsword. Which is where her Semblance came into play. 'Photographic Memory'. This particular photograph stored inside her Anesidora was taken during a sparring class at her former Combat School. As she felt her Aura kick in and her Semblance took a hold of her, memories of his movements and techniques coursed through her brain.

Almost instantly, her hands shifted their grip into the optimal positions for a powerful, overhead slash as she almost subconsciously rotated her hips and moved her feet into the proper stance to rapidly kick off of the ground. She shot straight for the Ursa, cleaving her projected weapon through it's chest - or... that was her intention. The blade caught on the reinforced, bone-like armour plates present. She had never faced a Grimm this... large... before, and she immediately realized she underestimated it.

It barely recoiled from her strike, and only her Faunus reflexes led her to bring the blade up to catch it's large arm, preventing it from crushing her shoulder to bits. Still, she could feel her Aura take a hit from the brute force behind it alone as her projection shattered. The excess force enough to send her careening several meters away from the Grimm. Once more her reflexes kicked in and with a spin in mid-air she managed to right herself to dexterously land on her feet in a crouch as her hand moved to her Anesidora once more.

Moments later she held a large trident in her hands, parrying a follow up claw that could undoubtedly have broken through her Aura, judging by the residual force. Luckily, her projection held, as her Semblance once more kicked in, letting her skillfully stab through one of its legs. Pulling back as it let out a pained roar, she followed it up with a wide swing, slamming it against the Ursa's face, creating large cracks in the sturdy bone plates around its eyes. On instinct she jumped back at the same time as her weapon shattered once more.

But it wasn't fast enough. A retaliatory swing from the Grimm nicked her in her side, slamming her out of balance as she crashed on the ground. Shaking her head to clear the resulting daze, her eyes focused just in time to see the large creature looming over her, poised to crush her with both its arms...

"YAAAAAAAAAH!".

Before she even understood what happened, a brown and yellow blur flew over her, slamming full force into the Ursa Major. Two large blasts went off point blank and she could only watch as the Grimm was launched away from her by a good twenty meters, slamming through a tree on the other side of the clearing. Blinking, shocked, she looked up at her saviour and found a blonde girl standing over her with a wide grin on her face. Excited, lilac eyes stared at her as the girl extended a hand to help her up.

"Hi there cutie~! Name's Yang, Yang Xiao Long" she said with a fairly seductive wink that made the shy bunny Faunus blush. "So, it looks like we're going to be partners huh? And damn girl, you picked some great target practice for our first shared kill!".

Velvet could only gape incredulously at the sheer enthusiasm her new partner displayed in the face of such a large and dangerous Grimm. An Ursa Major, most likely the Alpha Ursa of this part of the woods... After a few seconds and a curiously raised eyebrow sent her way, she quickly grabbed hold of the extended hand and let the blonde pull her back up on her feet with surprising strength. 'Or maybe, not _that_ surprising...' Velvet though to herself. 'She did just punch an Ursa Major clean across the clearing'.

"E-eh Y-yes!" she managed to stutter. "I'm Velvet! V-velvet Scarlatina. It's nice to m-meet you, Yang".

The blonde's grin disappeared completely, replaced by an incredulous stare as her mouth fell wide open. Velvet felt wholly uncomfortable, was there something wro-. Oh. _Oh_... She was staring right at her extended bunny ears. Was she against Faunus? She was just about to say it was alright for her to find another partner if she didn't want to be in a team with a Faunus, but then the impossibly strong blonde _squealed_. Literally squealed.

"OH my gods! Are those bunny ears!?". Velvet felt even more uncomfortable, but instead of a sense of dread, she now only felt a strange confusion.

"Y-yes... I'm a F-faunus" she replied as quietly as possible.

But the expected, negative response, or jeer about 'filthy animals' never came. Instead, the blonde squealed even louder as she took the shocked and yelping Velvet into a bear hug.

"You're so CUTE! OH man, just wait until you meet my sister, she's going to love you!", the girl gushed before she turned around and pumped both of her fists up into the air, followed by a loud shout that echoed throughout the surrounding woods. "MY PARTNER IS THE CUTEST!".

Velvet had no idea what to do, think or say. She could only dumbly stare at her new partner. 'This was going to be... strange, huh? Oh well, at least she isn't racist?'. Which is when she realized something that might be important.

"E-eh, Yang, m-maybe you shouldn't shout so lou-". Before she could even finish, the Ursa Major had gotten up and shook its head to clear the daze it received after the explosive charge, before letting out a loud, menacing roar. Which was quickly followed up by several more coming from the woods on all sides of the girls. And a lot closer than she found herself to be comfortable with...

"Eheh, oops?" Yang tried apologetically as she scratched the back of her head and gave her a silly smile. "I can be a little impulsive sometimes...".

Smiling regretfully, resigning herself to her situation, Velvet took her Anesidora and snapped several pictures of Yang's Shotgun Gauntlets, before flicking a switch on its side.

Yang could only blink in awe as she watched Hard Light projections of her Ember Celica take shape around the bunny Faunus her forearms, before her face twisted into a wide grin once more. "I think we're going to be great friends, Velvet...".

She turned back towards the Ursa Major and let out a battle roar of her own as she charged straight for it, with Velvet following close behind. Despite their current predicament, which only promised to get worse, the bunny Faunus couldn't help but feel a small, yet happy smile form on her face. She had come to Beacon Academy without any of her friends from Pharos, and she had feared getting partnered up with a racist classmate. Yang might be certifiably crazy from what she could tell so far, but at least she seemed nice!

* * *

Ruby struggled with all her strength - for what little it was worth. She could barely move an inch, which meant that her Semblance was out of the question as well. Supernatural bursts of rose-flavoured speed it may give her, but she needs to be in motion for it to activate. How did the young Ruby Rose find herself stuck, you might ask? She had been so focused on making a good impression on her new partner, to appear sociable like her sister Yang even if she wasn't really all that adept at social interactions...

She had been glad to have Shirou as her partner because of how nice he seemed, but watching him almost effortlessly slice through the Beowolves in their path without so much as breaking a sweat solidified that joy all the more. Of course, Beowolves are some of the more common and easier to deal with Grimm out there, but his skill and technique were clear as day as he danced around the Grimm, slicing them into pieces in the process. A few of his prey even left decapitated with but a single, well-placed blow to the neck.

And yes, she was well aware that she just referred to the Grimm, no matter how relatively simple Beowolves are, as _prey_. But that's just how easy Shirou made it seem. Ruby herself was no slouch in the combat department, and she was already aware of that, having been invited to enroll at Beacon two years younger than was the norm. However, hearing someone so skilled as Shirou compliment her on her own skill and unique fighting style made her more than a little giddy. So giddy, in fact, that she momentarily lost sight of her surroundings. And perhaps of where she was going as she happily skipped backwards during their conversation.

Her partner's warning and extended hand was just a little too late to catch her as she skipped right off of a small cliff. While a drop of ten meters wouldn't normally pose a problem to someone with an unlocked Aura, let alone a Huntress-in-training, it just had to happen inside of Arachnide-territory - as evident by the unyielding web she now found herself stuck to. She had been lucky she had managed to turn around in the air to land on her back when she realized what she was falling towards, although she had failed to grab ahold of her trusty Scythe hanging from her belt.

She could do little but stare up at her partner, who was giving her a slightly amused look, even if he tried to hide it. She felt her cheeks redden in light of her obvious clumsiness, and felt the instinctive need to pull her hood over her face. Sadly, however, her arm wouldn't budge one bit. Then she felt some kind of movement along the web she was lying in. It was a little tremor, which she almost didn't notice. But seeing how the small smile on Shirou's face vanished at almost the same time, she started to realize she needed to get herself free - as quickly as possible...

Oh gods... She was lying in a massive spider web! Pretty much all reason left her as a primal and perhaps unreasonable fear of anything even remotely resembling spiders took a hold of her. Despite intellectually knowing that moving would only alert whatever creature present in the web to her presence, if they didn't already know, she couldn't restrain herself from wildly trying to rip herself free or at the very least kick off enough to activate her Semblance and speed out of it. Alas, no such movement was possible for her.

It felt like an eternity, even if it couldn't have been more than a few seconds, but then she heard _it_. In her short life Ruby had faced several types of Grimm. Some of which could be considered as magnitudes more dangerous than the run of the mill Arachnide, but as she spotted the dark and vague, eight-legged shape the size of a large dog moving towards her from the corner of her eye, she let out a genuinely fearful scream.

It moved closer and closer. Despite not being able to turn her head fully in its direction, she could see large mandibles, the size of her forearms, clacking menacingly. And those eyes... Gods the eyes! Just when it was crossing the final meter to reach her, a red blur slammed into the horror. She almost missed the sound of metal sliding into its flesh as her mind was struggling to catch up.

Before she knew it, the webs around her were cut and she let out a yelp as she fell towards the ground, only to fall in the waiting arms of her partner. "T-thanks" she managed to stutter out as she looked up into his golden eyes - concern present in them clear as day. She certainly wasn't falling in l-love like her sister joked about. Not at all! But... she had to admit that at least a part of her didn't mind lying in his arms like this. Feeling her face heat up once more, she once again rued not having her hood pulled up over her face.

He seemed to be about to ask her something, before he jumped to the side, still holding onto her. After a brief moment of confusion, Ruby noticed the large Arachnide that looked like it had attempted to pound onto them from above, only to crash into the ground instead.

"This isn't good..." her partner started in a concerned, and almost whispered voice.

She was about to utter a 'huh?', as he had already cut her down. But then she shifted her neck and realized he had of course only cut _around_ her. And despite his skill, he had been far from in the perfect position, balanced on a dead and rapidly decomposing Grimm, to cut her free. Whatever slack web remained underneath and around her had wrapped itself around her like an incomplete cocoon. And, the gentleman that her partner was, he had made it to the ground before her to catch her.

However much she wasn't willing to admit she liked that chivalrous action, a spiderweb's stickiness was double-sided... Which meant that catching her with both arms, bridal-style, was perhaps not the best course of action. For all intents and purposes letting go of her was now an impossibility. An issue that Shirou seemed to have noticed, judging by the strained look on his face.

The way his head snapped around the clearing, accompanied by the various clacking and hissing sounds that she could pick up, didn't promise all that much good luck in their immediate future. As her partner slowly turned and looked at their surroundings, she just managed to spot the various shapes of Arachnides hanging from threads, or positioned on webs between the trees around them, waiting for the most opportune moment to strike.

This was bad! Really bad! She still couldn't move, and Shirou couldn't use either of his hands or arms as they were stuck holding her! They were surrounded by spider Grimm with no help in sight... Then her eyes met those pools of molten gold again. She realized she must have looked rather panicked at that point, but none of that could be found on his face, and especially not in his eyes. They almost seemed to shine with resolve and determination, a fire burning just below the surface. Despite knowing that they were surrounded and should be incapable of fighting back, those eyes seemed to tell her things were going to be alright. And in the face of that seemingly unwavering conviction, she couldn't help but believe him.

* * *

Things were bad. Not extremely bad, but still pretty bad. Shirou knew they were skirting it close to Arachnide-territory on their way north. But the last time he had been to this part of the Emerald Forest was a month or two ago. The edges of their territory had been at least a kilometer back, further to the east. Or at least, he was fairly certain they were... Holding his partner in his arms after having cut her 'free' from the web she pretty much fell into, options ran through his head and were swiftly rejected.

Despite that, he kept his face resolute as he looked at Ruby, stuck in his arms. He even managed to give her an encouraging smile, which seemed to help calm her down a little, as she took a deep breath and silently nodded back at him with her own smile, albeit a fragile one. He wasn't too worried about their chances of survival. There were only about a dozen Arachnides around them, but not being able to use his arms or letting go of Ruby did limit his options.

Try as he might, he could think of little he could do to fight back apart from blatant usage of Magecraft - something he was hoping to keep hidden, at least a little while longer. Don't misunderstand, Shirou was under no delusion that he could keep it hidden from his partner for the next _four years_, but he had at least hoped to keep it hidden a while longer. Allow for a mutual trust to build up and such... After all, they didn't really know each other at this point.

"I-... I can't get loose!" Ruby quietly told him as she struggled in his arms one last time in a futile attempt to remedy the 'sticky' situation they found themselves in.

He would have to commend her on her ability to steel her nerves while she was obviously terrified of spiders. He had seen things far more terrifying than these Arachnides, an enraged Berserker came to mind, but he had to admit that even he didn't feel to at ease looking at these dog-sized monstrosities. He took a split second to survey their surroundings. They were surrounded, that much was clear, and from what he could tell from the vibrations in the webs around them and the shapes in the distance, that noose would only tighten.

He let out a deep sigh before he replied with a rueful smile. "I guess I have no choice then".

Seeing her expression turn a little more nervous again, he chuckled. "Do you trust me, Ruby Rose?".

He saw her blink her silver eyes in confusion, but nonetheless she attempted to nod a moment later. 'Attempted' being the key word, as the back of her head was still stuck to his arm. Realizing this she answered verbally instead after a quiet cough. "Y-yes?".

Was he going to be able to write this off later as a Semblance? Who knows... It might be easier in the long run to just come clean to Ruby about his status as a Magus after the initiation. Even though he could honestly say he quite liked her, could he really trust her with something like that? Despite the borderline magical abilities of the natives of Remnant, being secretive is a major part of being a Magus, which is deeply ingrained in him. That led him to yet another difficult question. Would he tell her that Ozpin essentially put him on protection duty?

Shaking his head, he once more focused on their surroundings, making note of the positions of the various Arachnides. These concerns and worries could come later. Right now, all that mattered was the two dozen Arachnides surrounding them, and more importantly, the veritable horde he could sense approaching from the east...

He looked back down at his partner's face. Despite the severity of their situation and the helpless position she was in, there was still a light in those eyes that seemed to shine with conviction. With trust. She was clearly afraid, but he could tell she put her faith in him - the partner she had only known for a single day, just because he asked her. Well then, he couldn't disappoint her now, could he? He took a deep breath as he turned his eyes back up to the wall of Grimm. None of them would be allowed to harm her.

"I'll keep you safe".

That seemed to have been the cue for the abominations opposite him to attack, as the first of them leapt their way. Simultaneously, two words left his mouth.

**"Trace On"**.

* * *

The sheer confidence in his voice as he told her that he would keep her safe alleviated her fear a little, as she found herself unsure of what to say or do. He meant it. That much she could tell. But still a seed of doubt couldn't help but sprout in her mind. Could he protect her like this?

'What was he going to do? _What could he possibly do?'._ Much to her shame, despite the trust she had in her first friend at Beacon, she couldn't stop herself from fearing for the worst. And yet those golden eyes seemed nothing more than a little concerned. She couldn't see the Grimm around them, which she was silently thankful for, but the moment the first one leapt forward was loud enough for her to hear.

Instantly Shirou's face hardened, devoid of all emotion as if in deep concentration. Followed by two words. Words that seemed to reverberate through the air. Words that somehow seemed to hold power. She could feel his Aura, or she assumed it must have been Aura? It didn't feel all that much like her own, or that of the others whose Aura she had felt and touched before.

**"Trace On"**.

As those two words left his mouth, almost too fast for her to register, a sword formed right above them before it disappeared once again. No... She could hear a whistle, almost akin to a bullet propelled through the air, before it was followed by a sickening screech and crunch. Before she could truly comprehend what just happened, screeches pierced the air and hammered down on her eardrums. Reflexively she tried to cover her ears, but in the end she could do little but scrunch her head in a little tighter, still stuck to Shirou's arms.

Her eyes were wide open, however, as she watched something extraordinary. Something she couldn't explain. Sword after sword, dozens of them, and all with a strange presence to them, formed above them in the air before somehow being launched in all directions. How was he doing this? Was his Semblance related to creating weapons? She had assumed as much after their last fight where he seemed to have more copies of his twin swords, but these were completely different weapons. Judging by the death screeches and the sound of metal cleaving through flesh, they made short work of the Arachnides aiming to devour them.

for what seemed like an eternity she stared up at the swords forming above them and the firm look of resolve on the face of her partner, her _protector. _And then it was suddenly eerily quiet. She was about to let out a deep sigh of relief, but the way Shirou seemed to stiffen and stare off into the distance told her it wasn't over yet.

"How bad is it?" she asked him, dreading the answer. She had many questions for him, but right now, she realized they had to _survive_ first.

After what looked like a few moments of consideration as his eyes narrowed, the slowly deepening frown on his face did little to put her at ease. "Well over a hundred are heading this way from the east". He paused for a moment as he looked down and met her eyes, before chuckling. "Hold on tight".

It took her a moment to realize what was funny enough for him to laugh in the face of a hundred Arachnides soon to crash upon them like a tidal wave, but when he kicked off and seemingly shot through the woods in the opposite direction she got his 'joke'. She could do little other than yelp as her ride dashed through the dense woods at an unexpected pace, let alone 'hold on'.

She felt useless. Stuck in his arms, to be carried like a helpless princess. It reminded her all too much of those fairy tales about Knights in shining armour. Part of her hated being a burden like this. She had trained tirelessly, designed and constructed her own weapon and made it into Beacon Academy - she should be fighting! And still, a larger part than she would like to admit enjoyed it all the more when her ride seemed to reflexively pull her just a little closer to his chest as he made his way... somewhere. Anywhere. At that point, she caught herself not even truly caring. When she realized those stray thoughts, she once more _really_ hated not being able to pull up her hood as she felt her cheeks take on a dark shade of red.

* * *

"I wouldn't call it a temple, but 'ruins' I can agree with" Yang stated in a disinterested tone as she and Velvet looked around the stone platform and the remaining few, crumbled pillars.

Deciding not to reply to that statement, Velvet carefully walked up to the center of the ruins, finding several low pillars with small, golden and black items. One per pillar.

"Chess pieces? Are those the relics we had to find?" she voiced her curiosity, only for Yang to dash forward, grabbing a golden Knight-piece.

"Alright, got it! Now let's head... back...".

Wondering why Yang suddenly trailed off, Velvet followed her partner's line of sight to a duo that seemingly just made their way through the edges of the forest and into the temple ruins clearing. That wasn't all that strange, of course, considering the fact that everyone was supposed to find this temple, but the manner in which they entered the clearing seemed a little odd.

The boy with almost fully white hair, save for a few streaks of red, was making his way towards them in a full-on sprint. Held in a bridal carry, was a girl with black hair and a red cloak. Exactly _why_, she had no clue.

Next to her, her partner Yang seemed to be overly excited as she started yelling "Ruuuubess! Look at my cute partner~!". Letting out a quiet sigh, Velvet couldn't help but smile a little. Her partner was an odd one...

As the approaching duo, of which the girl Velvet assumed was Yang's younger sister Ruby, neared them, they could see the slight look of panic on Ruby's face.

"You know, I was only kidding when I mentioned you two lovebirds getting hitched~" Yang teased the couple, only to receive an annoyed groan from her sister in return. The guy holding her was looking over his shoulder, back the way they came from, before he turned back to them.

"As you might be able to see, Yang" he started in a dry voice. "We're in a _sticky_ situation and could use a hand in cutting us loose".

Only then did the two girls notice the white, sticky substance keeping Ruby in his arms. Yang started laughing, whereas Velvet gave the two an apologetic glance as she pulled out a small pocket knife and started to carefully separate them.

"I'm V-velvet, by the way, Velvet Scarlatina" she shyly introduced herself. "Yang's partner".

As they were slowly coming apart, the two introduced themselves in a friendly manner, once more filling Velvet with a sense of relief that they didn't seem to make a big fuss about her Faunus heritage.

After a quick hug between the two sisters, Ruby dashed into the ruins, picking a Knight-piece, similar to the one her sister had chosen. At that point, however, Shirou let out a whistle. "Heads up, they're coming!".

"What's coming, hands-". Yang started, only to cut herself off as her eyes widened, before she quietly added "Oh...".

One Arachnide broke through the clearing, before it stopped to assess its surroundings. A moment later, it clearly spotted them. Velvet, with her improved hearing, immediately realized that was not the _only _Grimm heading their way. As proven by the veritable horde of Arachnides that flooded out of the forest towards them. Dozens, maybe more than a hundred of the disgusting, spider-like Grimm came pouring their way.

"Yeah... Sorry about that" Ruby quietly apologized as she hid beneath her red hood.

The four of them shared a look, before they unanimously decided on their course of action as proud Hunters-in-Training.

"RUN!".

* * *

Ozpin was quietly chuckling to himself as he watched Shirou and his charge dashing through the forest with the latter held in a bridal carry. While he was clearly using his 'Magecraft' as a way to move faster than an ordinary Human should be capable of, the large number of Arachnides proved just a tad too much to completely outrun. With a satisfied smile he watched as Shirou seemed to have a sixth sense, as he jumped into the air right when a large glob of white shot through their previous position, forming a large spiderweb between two trees further down their path.

Kicking off of trees, he managed to manoeuver his way over the new obstacle, slamming feet first into the eyes of yet another Arachnide that tried to cut them off from the side. While the girl was clearly panicking somewhat, Shirou held himself admirably, in his opinion. He had expected ample entertainment from this pair, but not quite this soon. Letting out a laugh he continued to enjoy the show on his Scroll. It truly was a great idea to put hidden cameras throughout the entire Emerald Forest this year!

Unbeknownst to the headmaster with an admittedly, slightly sadistic sense of humour - Glynda Goodwitch was shooting him the occasional odd look as she alternated her gaze between the video feeds on her own Scroll, and the periodic, slightly disturbing laughs coming from him. She could only let out a deep sigh as she too followed the feed of miss Rose and Shirou. She knew he could potentially wipe out the entire horde using his 'Tracing', but that he instead chose to keep his partner in the dark as to the extent of his abilities.

She more than understood the need for secrecy - hell, she herself was part of a 'secret society' of sorts, led by the madly cackling man next to her no less. And yet... He had already projected a few dozen swords to escape their initial predicament. Ozpin seems to think Shirou's 'Tracing' could be explained as a Semblance, but she wasn't too sure about that. Hopefully his partner hadn't realized it yet, but he had already displayed more than a single unique ability. His Tracing, his Reinforced speed and strength... How long could they keep his origin a secret?

Inwardly, a far too small part of her mind kept reminding her not to see the mysterious 'magus' as 'Shirou', but as mister Emiya. And yet... She couldn't help but think back to the first assignment he received from Ozpin. She had insisted on accompanying him, even though Ozpin himself had told her it wasn't necessary. But she couldn't in good conscience send an untrained and unlicensed Huntsman out into the field on his own. Oh how she had underestimated him. Thinking back on it, she unconsciously let out a deep sigh as her cheeks took on a faint, rosy tint...

* * *

_**Flashback: About five months ago - Deep inside the Forever Fall forest**_

* * *

_Glynda had always been fond of the beautiful, red leaf cover of Forever Fall. Several times a year they would take groups of students to gather a special Red Sap that could be harvested from specific trees in the forested region. Yet, during their last trip, the normally manageable Rapier Wasp Grimm were unusually active. To the point where they had no choice but the flee the area._

_Further investigations via drones showed a disturbing sight... An Elder Grimm. A Rapier Wasp Queen. A monstrosity that they rarely encountered this close to Vale. Normally it would take at least a full team of skilled Hunters to even consider taking on a Queen inside its territory, strengthened by numerous swarms of smaller Rapier Wasps... And that foolish Ozpin had seen fit to send _one_ man. One 'magus'. _

_She was more than aware how useful the powers of the four Maidens were, and Ozpin had mentioned before that some of his earlier reincarnations were mages as well. Still, a horde such as that... She had more than a few doubts about this Shirou Emiya's chances. Their entire trip there, he had seemed so nonchalant. As if he wasn't worried at all about his chances of survival. _

_She had bit her tongue to keep herself from berating him for his lax attitude and foolishness. Such a lecture always worked better _after _someone realized it for themselves. In the meantime, she would just have to pick up his slack and remain vigilant._

_Whatever she had planned to lecture him about pretty much disappeared the exact moment they landed in the forest. His entire attitude changed in an instant. He was vigilant, alert. His eyes were sharp like an eagle's as he constantly surveyed their surroundings. She realized that despite his lack of experience in dealing with Grimm, he at least understood hunting. _

_Any skilled Hunter knew to keep an eye out for tracks and visual markers indicating Grimm territories, as well as the need for silence. She was somewhat flustered when he barred her path with his arm, pointing out Ursa droppings and the cavern entrance barely visible through the dense foliage. How could she have missed that!? She almost walked straight up to a Grimm nest! _

_Luckily for her, her partner didn't seem to mind her lack of attention and simply continued on his way, occasionally making sure she was still nearby. It took them a good few hours of making their way through the moonlit woods before they reached their target... A massive, hollowed out tree. As they had planned, Emiya 'Projected' a large, black bow - as well as several swords? He had indicated his magic was based around swords, but there had to be limits, right?_

_To her shock, he grasped each sword and seemed to concentrate, before each sword _transformed_. Losing their straight edges and shape, twisting into a stretched out spiral that one could hardly recognize as a sword. After a quick nod to her, to which she could only dumbly nod in return, he knocked his... sword-arrow and fired. What? She couldn't even follow its path. There was barely any sound, nor did the sentry Rapier Wasps seem to notice the fact that one of their numbers had seemingly disappeared. _

_One by one, the Rapier Wasps that casually made their way around the clearing were methodically taken out. Still in a daze, her partner had to nudge her to get her to refocus on their plan once more. _

_"Ready for the next part of our plan?" he calmly asked her as he kept watch on the clearing and the entrance to the hollowed out tree that housed the brunt of the Rapier Wasp colony - alongside their Queen._

_She took a deep breath, before she as quietly as possible utilized her Telekinesis Semblance to barricade the entrance to the Hive with boulders and dirt from around the clearing. After she was satisfied and certain that even a Rapier Wasp Queen wouldn't be able to burst out through it, she continued on to step three of their plan._

_Concentrating and coating their target with a liberal amount of Fire Dust, she followed it up with a complex Glyph. Half a minute later, the entire tree lit up like a bonfire. With morbid satisfaction, the two of them vigilantly watched from the treeline as burning Rapier Wasps attempted to escape the hellfire through smaller exit holes, only to crash down to the ground, falling apart. Death screeches resounded through the formerly silent clearing._

_And then the proverbial shit hit the fan - as the tree **exploded **outwards, launching pieces of burning wood and half-disintegrated Grimm parts in all directions__. Dark smoke billowed outwards, hiding the clearing from their sights. She tried to hold it in, but the sudden rush of heat and ash heavy smoke creeped into her lungs. She let out a single cough... _

_She heard Emiya say... Something, before her world seemed to have been put upside down. A split second later she realized she was tumbling away. He... He had shoved her aside? As her eyes refocused and found him, her breath hitched. Oh god... He... He had been slammed up against a tree, a massive, perhaps three meters long spear-like 'needle' - for lack of a better word - pinning him to it. His face contorted in a painful grimace._

_The Queen... It had simply bursted through the burning tree, and her cough had given away their position. If... If it hadn't been for him, she would have been..._

_As her mind froze up, she watched with growing horror as his hand shakily rose up, before he drew a strangely luminescent... Glyph? No, a Rune straight onto the air. She heard him mumble something through the blood he kept spitting up. As soon as he was done, the 'Rune' lit up even brighter, before an explosion of wind launched the Queen away, straight across the clearing and back into the inferno that was its hive._

_As he fell to his knees, Glynda was finally able to move again. Despair filled her mind as she rushed up to him, catching him before he could topple over completely. Oh god... Oh god... There was a hole the size of her leg straight through his stomach._

_"W-we need to call in reinforcements! H-hang on Emiya... J-just hang on!" she screamed out against her better instincts. His eyes were cloudy and barely open._

_As she lost herself to panicked thoughts and fumbled with her Scroll, she once more forgot the Queen. The loud screech from behind her was enough to remind her, but before she could pull Emiya away, his eyes seemed to sharpen, as he shoved her a good few meters away from him in a single push. Shakily, he got up on his feet, against common sense. Against reality. _

_Words... Words that made no sense to her. Words that reverberated through the air came out of his mouth as he stared down the Elder Grimm._

**_"I am the bone of my sword"_**

_She could see the Queen thrashing around underneath a large piece of wood from the remnants of its hive. Any second now it would break free... She had to do something!_

**_"Steel is my body, and fire is my blood"_**

_Glynda had no idea what the fu- Emiya was doing, but with each line, he seemed to regain some of his strength - however impossible that seemed to her. His back stood straighter, his fists tightened. Whatever he had planned, she couldn't rely on it. At that point, the Queen broke loose. Snap out of it Glynda! She pointed her staff, activating her Semblance and launched anything large and heavy she could find straight towards it. But it wasn't enough... It got knocked off-course, but it wouldn't stay down... Damn it all!_

**_"This body is made of blades!"_**

_She had to cover her ears against the horrible screeching of metal against metal. Where was it coming from!? Never mind, the Queen was once more charging towards Emiya... Oh god! She ran straight his way, hoping against all odds she could reach him in time, push him aside. Maybe... Maybe he could still survive? He had magic after all. But another one of those holes..._

_Before she could reach him, however, from only a meter or so away, she watched on with horror as he seemed to _catch_ the spear-like needle of the Queen between his hands, but despite the sparks and metal screeching coming from the friction, it still pushed onwards, straight into his ches- or wait. Up against his chest... With a loud clanging noise the Queen's charge was all but halted as Emiya skidded a meter or so back on his feet. _

_From this close she could see... She could see something morbidly fascinating. Where there had been a gaping hole in his stomach, all she could see was interlocking sheets of metal... Swords!? With an almost inhuman roar, reverberating as if even his vocal cords were made of metal, he shoved the Queen back in one mighty push, before a blade materialized into his hands. _

_A beautiful blade... A one-handed longsword gleaming under the light of the moon, with a ruby shining at the pommel. _

_"Sword of imperfect wishes crowned with the name of Victory..." he shouted as he leveled the mysterious sword's tip straight at the once more charging Rapier Wasp Queen. Light seemed to build up in the gleaming blade, in a mere second the clearing was bathed in a beautiful, stark white light._

_"Release! **Sword of Boudica!**"._

_Glynda could do little but fall back from the shockwaves as she shielded her eyes with her arm. With her eyes narrowed like tiny slits she peeked at the spectacle as dozens of bolts of what seemed to be pure light launched straight out of the sword's tip and exploded on top of the Queen. She could feel the power radiating off of the mysterious blade, this... 'Sword of Boudica?'. She was reminded of the fairy tales she was read as a child by her parents. The tales of Knights in shining armour battling Dragons. Of wise old Wizards and their magic... Of legendary weapons that Humans in ancient times were said to fight the hordes of Grimm with, before the advent of Dust. Was this one of those blades...?_

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

Thoughts? Comments? Critique? Please do let me know! :) It's fairly safe to assume that while Grimm are sturdy and though, Shirou is essentially a wild card. His biggest hindrance against _most_ common species of Grimm is the people he wants to protect. I was considering how to handle the Beacon Academy Initiation and thought that this might be a fun way to start out. He could technically curbstomp everything, but doing so has its drawbacks... As those familiar with RWBY might have noticed, so far its a fair bit different from canon. I don't dislike the Nevermore Weiss and Ruby encounter and ride, in fact I find it a great idea for a story - but it's overdone. So I thought I'd introduce the first of my custom Grimm, a fairly simple spider-species called Arachnides.

Instead of writing out their escape from the wave of Arachnides, which shouldn't be all that difficult if you think it through. Sure there's a lot of them, but they are relatively weak. What do you folks think? Should I fully write out the remainder of the initiation, or skip it to the team assignment ceremony? I guess I could have them run into my alternate-JNPR team as they tango with a Deathclaw(keeping in line with canon) or another custom Grimm and see how they deal with that + a wave of Arachnides. Or should I just keep focusing on Shirou and Ruby? I don't think it's really all that necessary for them to meet up with not-JNPR... Hmm...

_"What you bastard, Blake is not attending Beacon!?" _\- Yup! O;) Hate me if you want, but I'm going for a (hopefully) fairly dramatic and intense plotline revolving around Blake. It might take a few chapters until she starts to play a more... active part in the story, but since I do really like her character and backstory, I thought I might as well introduce her situation a little :)

Rejoice Glynda-fans! For your wish will finally be granted! GlyndaxShirou backstory. Is that the beginnings of a crush? Who knows... In any case, Glynda will regularly feature in 'Shared Ideals'. I also hope to put in some more occasional flashbacks to Shirou's six months in Remnant before his time at Beacon, so for those who prefer the slow and steady build up and have been a bit miffed that I just skipped six months, rejoice as well!

**If you're interested in reading more of my stories, please do check out my profile page! There you can find my 'Fate Salvation' (80k+) WIP fic, which I will be updating again in the next few days (just waiting for final proofreading). The 'Tempered Nerves' fanfic will also soon be updated, although I don't dare give a proper timetable as university courses are starting up again in a few days *sigh*. I might take a look at my drafts for upcoming chapters for my Sword Art Online fanfics as well, but I'm not too sure about that yet.**

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**Reminder: **Hey folks! I'm looking for Beta Readers for 'Shared Ideals', as well as one of my other recent Fanfics; 'Tempered Nerves'. If you're interested, please do send me a PM!


	3. Chapter 3 - SLVR

**Author's Note**

* * *

Chapter 3 has arrived! My apologies for those that have been anxiously awaiting chapter 2 of Tempered Nerves. I'm having a little trouble deciding on a few details that I need to have worked out before posting it. This fic just seemed to roll out a lot more smoothly, so I just decided to go with it until I run out of steam :) Glad to say I got a lot further in one stretch than I had imagined haha. Anyways, I hope you folks enjoy this chapter!

**Hey folks! I'm looking for ****Beta Readers** **for 'Shared Ideals', as well as for my other recent Fic; 'Tempered Nerves'. If you're interested, please do send me a PM!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Fate/Stay Night, nor RWBY.**

* * *

**Reviews**

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**Demonraily - **I'd like to think I have a fairly decent idea for how to fill not-CFVY's free spot :) I wanted to keep this chapter focused on the already introduced characters, to prevent it from getting too bloated. Next chapter though, I hope! And yes, he could quite easily have over-reinforced the webs that stuck him and Ruby together. However, this would once more mean doing something he wouldn't be able to explain without either having to come up with a terrible lie, or spilling the secret of magecraft... As long as the noble 'strategic retreat' is still an option and Ruby's life isn't in imminent danger, there's no reason to cross that line in his mind.

**WeirdGuyOne - **I believe it's stated that Crocea Mors(RWBY-verse) was used in the Great War, which started around 90 years before the episode 'Field Trip' and lasted for ten years. Which wouldn't insinuate an insane amount of history :P The wiki also states the blade is scratched and nicked in places. If I were to introduce Jaune in this fic (which I'm still on the fence about, even if I do have a decent story arc for the Arc - sorry) I would probably play around with its backstory to push it more into the realm of a Noble Phantasm. A thousand years worth of being passed down from wielder to wielder would indeed be an insane history. A weapon such as those Glynda referred to in last chapter's flashback... hmm. Oh well, if I ever feel like introducing Jaune, that'll be a nice addition for a homegrown, Remnant NP.

**An Indulgent Fellow - **Thanks man, good to hear the fight scenes (small as they have been) were satisfactory so far! They will always be the hardest part of a fic for me to write. I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to diving into the plotline I've sketched out revolving around the Four Maidens :)

**Aesir19 - **Telekinetic's Swords or something, right? I really liked that one. Hope it'll get finished at some point :P I won't comment on the pairings (yet), I'm having far too much fun reading the speculation and comments in the reviews gehehe O:)

**Witdog - **Thanks! I did not actually know that with the punctuation in quotation marks. Learn something new every day! I will retrace my steps at some point, once I have some time (and patience) to do so :)

**Pepegapng / Ilikebob / Ahsoei - **You're right, in canon Velvet is indeed a second year student at Beacon and a member of team CFVY. This is pretty much an AU(alternate universe) however, and as you might have noticed, Velvet isn't the only character that isn't quite where they're supposed to be... :)

**Daniel T. Gualnam - **I believe it is, yes. But considering how it would be very impractical (or impossible as long as nobody else is booted) for anyone to join directly into a later year, due to the forming of teams at the start of year 1, and how not everyone will always be able to get into Beacon or another Academy on their first try, I just assumed it should be possible for those a few years older to apply as well. It wouldn't do to turn down potential huntsmen because they're a year or two to old after all :P

**All Other Reviews - **Thanks for the comments, critique, advice and speculation everyone :) Really gives a mental push to roll out another chapter. And the more discussion and speculation there is, the more it makes me think about the plotline and what's still to come, which is immensely helpful!

* * *

**Chapter 3 - SLVR**

* * *

After their 'strategic retreat', the four Hunters in training spent a good hour making their way towards the cliff that would mark the end of their initiation to Beacon Academy. They only had time for short breaks, a few minutes at most before the horde of Arachnides would catch up to them, once more forcing them to keep on the move. While Shirou could trace several anti-army Noble Phantasms that would be perfect for such a task, he couldn't very well pull out a legendary weapon and level a forest while he was supposed to hide the full extent of his abilities. As such, he could do little but keep vigilant for the occasional small pack of Grimm that barred their way, possibly inconveniencing them enough to let the horde catch up if they were to be caught unawares.

Luckily, the four of them seemed to quite easily fall into synch. Yang had taken point, overpowering most obstacles head-on with brute forces and a flurry of shotgun powered punches, while her younger sister guarded their rear. The bunny Faunus, Velvet he believed her name was, had the most peculiar item with her. They hadn't had much time to discuss it, but from what he could see it was some sort of advanced camera and projector, capable of projecting copies of weapons scanned by it - as evident by the translucent Kanshou and Bakuya wielded by the girl. They certainly lacked the durability of his traced weaponry, being more akin to what most magi would be able to accomplish using regular projection; two to a maximum of five hits before they inevitably shattered.

What baffled him most, however, was how she managed to wield them so well. At first her strikes had been clumsy, but the more she glanced his way as he used them, the more skilled her own movements became. It took him some time to figure out how she so rapidly seemed to copy his style, but then he sensed her Aura flaring up whenever she shot him a glance.

'_Her semblance lets her copy fighting styles? Quite the combination with her projections... Heh, it's almost the same as how I can copy the skill of the original wielder of weapons I project...'._

Inwardly he admonished himself for his lack of focus as he just managed to dodge underneath a Beowolf that darted over his head from his side of the woods. Before he could retaliate, however, their designated, ranged support took it down with a single shot from Crescent Rose. Adhering to this simple, yet highly effective strategy, the four of them made it to the cliff face without much issue, if a little out of breath.

Or, as he should say, they made it to the ravine that separated them from the cliff face. A narrow and fairly worn-out, stone bridge on precariously thin support beams connected their side to what seemed to be some sort of ancient temple complex carved into the cliff face itself. He had his doubts about the construct's stability, but considering Yang didn't seem to mind and had already charged part way across it with a victorious cheer, he just followed suit after releasing an amused sigh.

Despite his E-rank luck, nothing actually went wrong as their group made it across the ravine. They ended up catching their breath on the other side as they looked around for some sort of staircase leading to the top. Before they found it, however, Ruby's slightly panicked voice broke through the silence.

"Uuuhm guys, what do we do about _them_?"

Seeing the approaching horde of Arachnides making their way towards the bridge, Shirou rapidly started filtering through some Noble Phantasms that could take down the structure. Sure, he had plenty, but once more that meant giving too much away about his abilities... Ozpin did warn him to keep things simple, as the initiation would be recorded and viewed by all Beacon instructors by various cameras hidden all over the area.

It seemed, however, that the choice on what to do was taken out of his hands. Letting out a savage war cry, he watched as Yang's lilac eyes flashed an angry red before she jumped up using her Ember Celica. Letting the recoil propel her higher up into the air, she twisted and turned around, letting loose several more shots to launch herself back down at breakneck speed.

"GRAAAAAAAAAH!"

Roaring, she slammed fist first into the bridge, close to their side, before kicking off and jumping back onto the stable ground of the temple complex. While Yang was taking deep breaths, with Ruby calming her down, her eyes gradually returned to their previous colour. '_Mad Enhancement?' _Shirou couldn't help but ask himself as she reminded him a little too much of Berserker...

"CRACK!"

Right when he was about to ruefully conclude it had done nothing meaningful, large cracks started to form across the bridge's surface from Yang's point of impact - before parts crumbled away, crashing down into the ravine below. Seconds later the entire bridge had all but disappeared. The horde of Arachnides came to a halt near the edge, unsure of what to do, other than angrily screeching and snarling in their direction. A few of the ones up front attempted to shoot spider silk threads in their direction, but they all fell short of making it across.

"Yeah you did it sis!" Ruby cheered her sister on, much to the aforementioned sis' satisfaction as the two of them jumped around in a hug.

Meanwhile Shirou and Velvet just sat down against some pillars, both simultaneously letting out relieved and tired sighs at their partner's antics before blinking and owlishly looking at each other.

"We've both got excitable partners, huh?" he couldn't help but smirk. Velvet chuckled quietly, presumably to make sure Yang wouldn't overhear her.

"Y-yes, but they are sisters after all. It's not surprising for them to be alike..." She paused for a moment, before she chuckled a little louder. "Not that I think the world will be able to handle them if they both get wound up at the same time."

Letting out a good natured laugh, he was about to retort, when a deafening screech forced all of them to cover their ears.

"SSSCCHIIIKKRRRIIISHH!"

Making its way through the horde of Arachnides was a massive monstrosity. Eight legs the size of tree trunks, covered from end to end in chitin-like armour, mercilessly crushed its smaller kin as it approached the edge of the ravine.

The fact it pushed at least a dozen of the smaller Grimm over the edge into the depths below was hardly a comfort when faced with the truck-sized, bone white shell that protected its front and top. Glowing red eyes menacingly gazed at them as its mandibles the size of Shirou's legs clacked together with the sound of steel clashing against steel.

"I-It's an E-elder Grimm..." Velvet muttered in disbelief as her eyes widened.

Yang, whilst warily eyeing the affront to nature, walked up to her partner and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, they can't get across, so we should... be... fine..."

Of course, while Yang spoke the words that would seem to dare the Arachnide Broodmother and fate itself to disprove them, it reared back and once more let out a deafening screech. Before they knew it, it propelled a pillar of spider silk across the gap, slamming into one of the larger support beams of the complex. Thereby connecting both sides.

The earth shook from the impact as dust and debris came down from the ceiling, while the horde of Arachnides let out a chorus of victorious screeches when they realized they could now once more reach their prey.

"W-well... A-at least it probably won't be able to do that again, right?" Yang tried, once more daring fate to screw them over.

When the second and third impacts had passed, the impulsive blonde could only wince and silently apologize as the Arachnides started to make their way across. Shirou, realizing running would be futile at this point and that they couldn't very well lead this army back towards Beacon, quickly made his way over to where the first silkbridge had attached itself. Reinforcing himself to the limit, he jumped up and twisted in the air to generate as much centrifugal force as possible, before he slammed Kanshou and Bakuya down onto the meter thick connection.

With a grinding sound that his Noble Phantasms should _not_ be making when cutting through organic material, he sliced his dual blades halfway through the silkbridge. '_Damn, what the hell is this stuff made of?!' _he cursed inwardly as he pulled back his blades and repeated his cutting motion. With a sick, snapping sound, the strangely elastic substance shot back as if releasing a rubber band made for giants. He narrowly managed to avoid the whiplash by contorting his body to a near unnatural angle and falling backwards.

He watched impassively as a good few dozen of the rapidly approaching assailants slammed into the opposite cliffside, dropping most of them down into the ravine below. Looking over towards his partner, he was proud to see her already slicing away at one of the other bridges, using the recoil of her sniper rifle rounds to provide her with enough force to make some gashes in it. A good dozen or so swings later, she too managed to cleave through hers, sending more of the Grimm down into the depths.

A round of cheers resounded through the complex as Shirou made his way over to help Yang and Velvet with separating their bridge. The former with her shotgun gauntlets and fists, and the latter with her fragile projections had a lot less luck in getting through the sturdy substance. She might be able to copy his motions, but it was clear that she lacked the strength to fully follow through with them. With the help of his superior Kanshou and Bakuya, it didn't take more than a few seconds to separate the third and final bridge. Only for three new ones to slam into the walls and pillars around them in rapid succession.

"This isn't working guys!" a clearly frustrated Ruby shouted with a not too hidden hint of concern in her voice.

"Alright, new plan!" Shirou shouted, waving the others over. "How much Fire Dust have we got?"

The next ten minutes, the four of them ran from silk bridge to silk bridge, with Shirou slicing through them as fast as he could with his tired, slightly over-reinforced arms. Ruby did much the same, being the only other one amongst them with a remote chance of cutting them, albeit at a slower pace than Shirou. Yang and Velvet packed as few Fire Dust rounds around the remaining ones as they felt would work, before Yang set them off with shotgun blasts.

The highly flammable spidersilk caught on like a wildfire. Doing a decent job in warding off the coming horde and slowly whittle down their numbers, as they tirelessly kept trying to make it across. Silkbridge after bridge connected, replacing the lost and burning ones almost as fast as they could cut and burn them down.

Just when Shirou had decided to screw secrecy and pull out a weapon to let loose a destructive barrage of Prana-fueled projectiles, he watched as the latest silkbridge, one several times larger than the meter thick cables previously launched and arguably large enough for the Elder Grimm itself to come across - seemed to freeze, as if having hit an invisible wall and coming to a dead stop in mid-air. Before it was somehow flung back and slammed into the remaining horde of Arachnides at full force.

As it came down atop the larger portion of the remaining horde with sickening crunches, the end even slammed across the Elder Grimm itself, pushing it a good few meters back. The four of them stared in wonder, whilst even the Elder Grimm seemed to pause and stare at what just happened in disbelief with narrowed, beady red eyes.

"I-it's professor Goodwitch!" Ruby shouted in relief as she pointed up towards the cliff top above them.

Looking up, Shirou couldn't help but smile as he quietly muttered to himself. "Well, I'll be damned Glynda... I guess I owe you another dinner."

* * *

Knowing that Shir- erh, the final four students still in the initiation would be hard-pressed to get out of that situation without being wrapped in cocoons and becoming spider meals, Glynda had rushed towards their location as soon as the cameras near the cliff face picked up the Arachnide Broodmother.

As she looked down from her vantage point atop the Beacon Cliffs, she could see the four of them fighting for their lives, with Shirou shouting orders and directing the others as they rushed from bridge to bridge to cut them off before the rapidly approaching Arachnides could skitter their way across and make their job of staying alive that much harder.

Loud explosions went off as trails of fire originating from the connecting points beneath her spread along the highly flammable silkbridges, burning dozens upon dozens of Grimm and sending them tumbling down into the ravine as they uttered their death throes. As she watched the remaining six or so bridges burn to ashes and fall apart, for a moment she thought that was it.

But, even with its horde mostly decimated, the Elder Grimm seemed far from willing to give up. It coiled in on itself, rearing back. She knew what this meant, this wasn't her first Broodmother after all...

As the mass of silk that would have allowed the monstrosity itself to cross the ravine shot through the air, she pulled out her riding crop and activated her Semblance. As she attempted to affect the massive projectile, it took all of her willpower to even get a mental grip on it. Sweat drops trickled down her forehead as she pushed her Telekinesis to its limits - but she just managed to do it before it would connect. Halting it in place, while heaving from the effort, she roared with clenched teeth as she pushed with the entirety of her mind and Aura, _finally_ launching it back.

"GRUUAAH!"

She could hear some cheers and muffled shouts coming from below her, but she kept her eyes locked on the Broodmother across the ravine. It stared back, unmoving and unflinching, with its hate-filled red eyes. Seconds passed, neither of them moving. Before the Elder Grimm slowly backed off, letting out a few screeches, causing the remaining dozen or so smaller Arachnides to retreat with it back into the dense woods of the Emerald Forest.

"Glad it didn't try again... I wouldn't have managed to do _that_ twice..." she muttered to her empty surroundings as she fell on her back from exhaustion after it left her sight.

"That was quite something Glynda" the amused and impressed voice of that insufferable headmaster cheerfully interrupted her rest. "I don't think I've ever seen you push your Telekinesis this far before."

Glynda just let out a tired grown as she glared in his general direction, her vision too hazy to really make out Ozpin.

"Shut it... And I don't care that teachers and students aren't supposed to eat together, Shirou is cooking me a damn feast for this..."

The last thing she heard before passing out was amused laughter.

* * *

Politely clapping, Shirou watched the assignment of teams of his fellow freshmen at Beacon Academy in the auditorium. It was somewhat surprising to see how well most of the teams seemed to fit together, despite having been assembled at close to random.

"...Team CRDL, pronounced CARDINAL. Led by Cardin Winchester!" that one, for example. Four peacocking muscleheads who, judging from the history of their weapons overly ornamental and flashy weapons, were all equally mediocre in terms of skill and experience.

The next team, however, seemed to garner a lot more interest from the gathered students. He had to admit he wasn't all too aware of the ongoings of the world at large, as the time he had thus far spent in Remnant had mostly been dedicated to getting acclimated and... well... hunting Grimm.

"Weiss Schnee, Pyrrha Nikos, Li Ren and Nora Valkyrie will form... Team SVNR, pronounced SUNRAY. Led by Weiss Schnee!"

The white-haired heiress with a nasty temper that had a spat with Ruby, admittedly due to his partner's clumsy nature, seemed a little too much as if she had expected that outcome while she thanked the Headmaster and ordered - _yes, ordered_ \- her new team to clear the stage. At least her teammates seemed to go along with her without really caring about her personality.

Who knows? Maybe she isn't always like that. He was much more enthralled by the history of Pyrrha Nikos her weapons. She was quite the skilled fighter, a lot more so than any other student he had grasped the weapon of so far. She had been in quite a few decent fights. Perhaps she would be up for a spar sometime?

"...And for the final team; Shirou Emiya, Ruby Rose, Velvet Scarlatina and Yang Xiao Long will form... Team SLVR, pronounced SILVER. Led by Shirou Emiya!"

He only let out a quiet sigh, because he really should have expected Ozpin to trouble him with the captaincy of the team, judging from the man's barely visible smirk. With his best polite smile he and his team greeted and thanked the headmaster, before making their way off the stage again.

As they passed team CRDL, two of their members, one of them being their team captain Cardin Winchester, coughed into their hands as they said something that made Velvet visibly cower and slink back behind Yang - and had the added effect of _really_ ticking him off.

_*cough*_ "Filthy animal" _*cough*_

* * *

Velvet saw her partner tense up and getting ready to leap to her defense, but the last thing she wanted was to start a scene in public... Yang's eyes had already started shifting closer to red, but before she could interject and try and calmly usher her away, Shirou gave them all an outright _angelic_ smile. Right before he turned that smile towards a certain team CRDL. She watched, unsure of what to do, together with the remainder of their team as their newly named captain calmly made his way over to Winchester. With a friendly wave and that same downright scary smile on his face.

The four in question seemed to scowl, but froze up in place like statues when they caught sight of Shirou's eyes. While his entire body language spoke of friendliness and calmth, his eyes... They shone like stars in the night sky. The tiny glimpse Velvet caught of them convinced her that even the Elder Grimm they had held out against would have flinched under their gaze.

She watched, frozen in place, as Shirou calmly grabbed hold of Winchester's hand and seemed to give him a friendly shake. They were standing close enough to them to hear Shirou giving him a warm 'congratulations' on becoming a fellow team captain and sharing a few pieces of advice in regards to captaincy and teamwork, although it was too muffled for them to really make out the details. From the look on Winchester and his teammates faces, however, it seemed to be far from a warm greeting. And if the sound _bones_ _shattering_ during their short handshake was any indication...

For a fleeting moment her mind stopped as she realized he must have depleted that boy's Aura in mere seconds with nothing but a handshake, before proceeding to break the bones in his hand as well... How strong was Shirou to be able to do that...? But as he turned back to her with an apologetic smile, and eyes filled with concern, she felt a faint blush spread across her cheeks. '_He... He stood up f-for _me_?' _she asked herself in her mind. But seeing the earnest look of worry in his eyes, she couldn't come to any other conclusion.

Feeling her blush darken by another shade, she felt her lips twitch into a small smile as she took a deep breath and nodded her thanks. He seemed to inspect her expression for any hidden truths, but finding none, he smiled back, before gesturing for their team to continue on their way. As they got a little distance from the other teams, Yang started snickering and let out a low whistle.

"Damn, _handsome_..." she started in a somehow simultaneously amused, awed and more than a little approving tone. "I was about to kick their asses, but it looks like you scared the living daylights out of them already."

Looking back over her shoulder, Velvet could see the three remaining members standing around their captain with pale faces. Said captain was looking at his hand in horror as he carefully cradled it with his unbroken one. When Shirou spoke after a few seconds of awkward silence, it was in the calmest and most serene voice she had heard him speak in so far.

"Hmm, whatever do you mean? I just congratulated my fellow captain on his new position and advised him that, as a captain, it would now be his _duty_ to look after his team members. Especially if someone were to harass them."

Yang just chuckled and gave him an approving smile before walking off with her sister, who, bless her innocence, hadn't noticed any of the previous interactions and was excitedly speculating about what their room was going to be like. As she watched the two sisters and their antics with a small smile, she felt Shirou put a comforting hand on her shoulder as they trailed a little behind them. Turning her head to look at her captain's face, she was greeted by a warm, if concerned smile.

"You alright, Velvet?"

Not really finding any suitable words, she just nodded and smiled as she felt her cheeks heat up once more.

Her captain just chuckled. "Good, then let's catch up with our partners and go get settled in our room. I could really use a nap..."

She felt herself chuckle along with the redhead. "Alright, c-captain!" She said with as much conviction as she could, to which their newly named captain awkwardly laughed as he rubbed the back of his head.

"You know, just Shirou is fine. Captain sounds so formal..."

Meanwhile, out of earshot of the remaining half of their team, Yang swung her arm around her little sister and smirked as she gestured behind them with a nod of her head. Ruby, interrupted in her musings about wildly unrealistic expectations for a dorm room, followed her line of sight and saw Shirou softly smiling at Velvet, as he put a hand on her shoulder. Yang's smirk widened when she noticed Ruby's eyes narrow upon seeing Velvet blush and fidget a little under his attention.

"You know..." she started in a mischievous tone. "If you don't make a move soon, cute little Velvet might just claim _your _partner for herself..."

Yang just started laughing as Ruby blushed up a storm and sputtered wholly unconvincing denials. Oh, she was _so_ going to enjoy the next four years with this bunch of loveable idiots...

* * *

When Shirou awoke early the next morning, it was to the comical sight of his still vast asleep teammates. Ruby was muttering in her sleep and he could fairly confidently say she was talking both to, and about cookies. Perhaps he should bake her some one of these days? It's been a while since he tried his hand at baking... Yang seemed to have kicked her blanket off of her bed somewhere in the night, and held her pillow in a chokehold, whereas Velvet seemed to have subconsciously constructed a den of some sort and had curled up into a ball.

Shaking his head at his teammates antics, he quickly changed into his exercise clothes in the small, adjoining bathroom, before he went out to do his morning exercises in the courtyard next to their dormitory. Considering that Beacon was an academy dedicated to training future generations of Huntresses and Huntsmen, he had expected there to be a good number of students who would get up early in the morning, like him. But considering his own teammates their sleeping habits and the overall dead silence in the hallways, his hopes had been somewhat dashed.

Which was why he was pleasantly surprised when he spotted a certain redhead in the process of stretching. She gave him an approving nod accompanied by a radiant smile as he started his own morning routine a respectable distance away from her. He couldn't quite recall her name, but he was fairly certain she belonged to the Schnee heiress' team. Sunray, was it? After having finished his warm-up routine, he started on his morning run around the campus when he heard a cheerful, if somewhat nervous voice call out to him.

"Hey, wait up!"

Obliging his fellow early riser, he waited for her to catch up. With a wide, teasing grin she jogged his way, before continuing on past him. Blinking a few times in confusion, he was treated to the sound of teasing laughter, chiming across the courtyard like bells in the warm morning sun.

"Well don't just stand there!" she laughed. "Mind if I join you on your run?"

Chuckling, he acquiesced. Some company wouldn't hurt after all.

"Uhm, Shirou, was it?" she asked him as he caught up to her and the two of them continued on their way towards the edges of the campus.

"That's right" he replied as he somewhat sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry, I don't think I remember your name from the team ceremony yesterday?"

He wasn't quite sure why the girl's green eyes widened almost to a comical size as she seemed wholly disbelieving of that for a few moments. Seeing his confused expression, she quickly introduced herself.

"R-really? Uhm.. Oh, eh" she started awkwardly, before she chuckled nervously. "N-never mind. Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos."

A little unsure of why introductions were such a big deal to her, considering the slightly confused and inquisitive glances she was sending him, he just awkwardly chuckled along. He was fairly certain he would have remembered meeting her before if that was the case. Right?

"Well, it's nice to meet a fellow morning person, Pyrrha."

After a few seconds of seemingly having inspected his expression for any lies, she gave him a most radiant smile. "Likewise, Shirou!"

The remainder of his roughly hour-long morning routine was shared with Pyrrha in a comfortable silence, neither really feeling the need to talk much. She seemed to be interested in his routine and followed his example. By the time they were done, they were both covered in a light sheen of sweat and heaving a little.

As they made their way back into the dorms, they were a little surprised to find their teams were in adjoining rooms and quickly agreed to regularly share their morning work-out. He also invited her and her team to breakfast in the dormitory's kitchen, instead of going to the communal dining hall.

As Shirou walked back into his team's shared room, he couldn't help but stare disbelievingly at the complete lack of change from when he left an hour earlier. All of his teammates were still vast asleep. Shaking his head and letting out a disappointed sigh, he quickly made to take a shower, after which he gently woke them up. Only the promise of food and a reminder that classes were to start in an hour got them out of bed - albeit begrudgingly.

* * *

"Really Pyrrha, I don't mind you making friends" a still half-asleep Weiss muttered with badly veiled irritation as she yawned and 'admonished' her.

"But to accept some invitation from a random boy for the whole team to join him and his for breakfast... People of our stature have to be mindful of who we socialize with."

Pyrrha just sighed at her team captain's attitude. Sure, there were worse candidates for a partner, but that didn't mean she really enjoyed having the grouchy and spoiled Schnee heiress with a superiority-complex as hers...

"I don't know, he seemed quite nice" she simply replied with her practiced, polite expression and a slightly strained smile.

"And considering he was the only other student from our entire dormitory to be out at the same time for morning exercises, I'd say he's a good bit more diligent than most."

Stating that last bit in a slightly admonishing tone did the trick, as the white-haired grouch seemed to quiet down. The remainder of their team was animatedly chatting a few paces behind them. Or rather, Nora Valkyrie was chatting to and hanging off of the arm of her partner, Li Ren, as she half-skipped, half-tumbled forward, dragging him along in the process.

"Oh, oh, oh, Ren!" the orange-haired, overly energetic Nora cheerfully started, jerking her partner's arm in the rhythm of her 'oh's. "Do you think he made pancakes!?"

Her quiet partner didn't seem to mind at all as he was dragged along, and just nodded along to her tales and musings as his half-lidded eyes didn't really seem to register anything around him. It was obvious he was still mostly asleep and simply relied on Nora to get him where they were headed. The amusing sight brought a more honest smile to Pyrrha's lips. Oh well, it was only the first day of school, Weiss would probably mellow down a little once the novelty of their partnership has worn down a bit.

As they walked into the dormitory's small kitchen they were greeted by the amusing sight of three girls, Shirou's teammates she recalled from the ceremony the other day, lying face down on the table. At practically the same time as what could only be described as a heavenly scent invaded Pyrrha's nostrils, all three sitting girls shot upright, clearly having smelled the same tantalizing smell.

It was so intoxicating that Pyrrha didn't even notice that her own team was alert and wide awake as well because of it. As they awkwardly made their way over to their table, considering Shirou was nowhere in sight and she wasn't quite sure his teammates were aware that he had invited her team over as well, she was a little startled by her fellow redhead's voice pulling her from her scent-induced trance. Or, considering that only a few streaks of red remained in his mostly white hair, perhaps calling him a redhead was a little... wrong?

"Ah, you're here!"

Following the warm and cheerful voice, she noticed Shirou coming around the corner from where the kitchen portion of the room must be located, carrying various plates on his arms as if he were a trained waiter. The dishes in question were elaborate, far more elaborate than she had ever imagined breakfast food could be. Absentmindedly she noted somewhere in the back of her head that the dishes seemed to be well-balanced as well, clearly fitting for the active lifestyle the two of them shared.

"Well, don't just stand around. Take a seat, I'll just bring out the rest real quick and then we can eat!"

_'There was more!?_' she disbelievingly asked herself as he gestured them over with a nod of his head and clearly satisfied with their antics if his wide grin was any indication; seeing how she and her team were standing a bit away, halted in their tracks by the unexpectedly beautiful display of culinary brilliance. Pulled from their daze, they quickly made to sit down next to the remaining members of team SLVR, who looked equally impressed and anxious.

While Shirou kept bringing out several more plates and spread them around the table like a buffet, the two teams didn't so much as twitch, nor even really introduce themselves. Entranced as they were with the sights and smells of the veritable feast laid out before them.

* * *

Shirou couldn't help but pause as he looked at the antics of the people enjoying the breakfast he prepared. He might have gone a little overboard, wanting to celebrate their first day of classes and hopefully help properly wake up his teammates. Seeing how they practically inhaled their meals - even the prim and proper Schnee heiress seemed to abandon _most_ table manners - he could only conclude it to be successful.

"Shirou..." he was pulled from his thoughts by the uncharacteristically quiet voice of his team's normally rambunctious blonde. "Where did you learn how to cook like this?"

The awe with which she spoke, and the overly attentive gazes of the other participants of the meal slightly unnerved him. He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as he let out an awkward chuckle.

"Well, my dad would literally manage to burn water, so I've always been the dedicated chef at our house."

Yang slowly nodded, before she exchanged meaningful glances with her sister and Velvet. He wasn't quite sure what the three of them were thinking, but they seemed to be having some kind of wordless conversation.

"This was truly delicious, Shirou" Pyrrha complimented him, as her teammates joined in with their own compliments towards the meal. Before he could thank her however, his teammates' heads simultaneously snapped in her direction.

"He's _our_ chef."

Yang's statement, which didn't leave any room for discussion and was accompanied by deadly serious nods from the other two members of their team, silenced the room as tensions seemed to rise exponentially. Before things could escalate, Shirou quickly both admonished and placated his team.

"Now, now... I don't mind making breakfast for _both_ our teams. Pyrrha is my morning exercise buddy, after all."

Ruby and Velvet had the common decency to sheepishly look away and realize they might have overreacted. Whereas Yang just sent him a challenging stare. He felt his mouth twist into a smirk.

"Unless you'd like to take her place, Yang?"

That seemed to do the trick, as Yang paled and looked begrudgingly gave in. The radiant smile he received in return from Pyrrha seemed more than a little victorious, causing some of his teammates' eyes to narrow once more. He could only let out a deep sigh as he shook his head at their antics. Really, he was well aware that his cooking was decent, but there was no need to become so territorial. '_Women..._' he thought to himself, wisely keeping the sentiment from spilling out of his mouth.

* * *

The freshmen year was small enough, or the classrooms were large enough, whichever way you looked at it - for all teams to share the same schedule, so teams SLVR and SVNR made their way to their first class together after they all insisted on pitching in with the clean-up. With eight people, they got in each other's way more often than not. Seeing how the two teams would probably be sharing breakfast most days from here on out, Shirou proposed coming up with a schedule for who helps on what days, to which everyone quickly acquiesced.

As they walked from the dormitory to the lecture hall for a history class by a Dr. Oobleck, the two teams, who had calmed down after reinsurances from him that they could all enjoy his cooking for breakfast, were animatedly getting to know each other.

"Wait!" Ruby's excited voice suddenly called out. "Aren't you Pyrrha _Nikos_?"

The redhead in question just nodded with a polite smile, which seemed a little _too_ trained to Shirou's eyes. Seeing how both Yang and Velvet seemed to perk up and recognize the name as well, he felt a little left out.

"You know each other?" he asked, wondering whether they might have shared the same combat school before coming to Beacon Academy.

"I'm sure this... _troublemaker_" Weiss started, interrupting her partner who was about to answer him herself. "...just knows Pyrrha by reputation."

Seeing his raised eyebrow and inquisitive glance, Pyrrha awkwardly chuckled.

"Well... I won some tournaments back in Mistral, that's probably what she's referring to..."

"You know, from the Pumpkin Pete's commercial?" Ruby excitedly jumped back into the conversation, trying to elicit a reaction from him.

Seeing his confused expression, she struck a pose with her voice clearly trying - and failing - to emulate Pyrrha's and repeating some generic and altogether very cheesy slogan for morning cereal. While the others present started discussing the pros and cons of said breakfast food, he looked over at Pyrrha, who seemed wholly uncomfortable with the attention, even if she wore a practiced smile.

"_That's _what you're focusing on?" team SVNR's captain started in an admonishing and far too smug tone. "Don't forget what led to her getting that gig; winning the prestigious Mistral Regional Tournament _four_ years in a row. We're talking about the undefeated champion, the _invincible _Pyrrha Nikos!"

As the two teams started an animated discussion about the redhead's achievements, Shirou couldn't help but notice that her polite smile got increasingly strained as she nodded along and waved away the praises. Realizing that fame isn't always that great, even without being hunted by a cutthroat organization of magi with low morals wanting to vivisect you, he shot her an apologetic smile.

"That must've been rough" Seeing the surprised expression on her face, and the confused ones on the faces of the others, he went on to explain the sentiment, cutting off Weiss who had started to admonish him in a disbelieving tone.

"Well, I mean, once you're famous people instinctively seem to view you as larger than life. I can imagine that it must be difficult to deal with when _everyone_ knows your name and people put you on a pedestal. It's not something I've personally had to deal with of course..." discounting his status as a Sealing Designate, considering that was a wholly different kind of attention. "...but I guess stardom has more than a few downsides."

The others seemed to consider it for a few seconds as silence replaced the previously lively discussion. As they somewhat sheepishly looked over at Pyrrha for either confirmation or denial, he realized that her strained smile had melted into a genuine one, before she started laughing. Once more he was reminded of chiming bells. He absentmindedly noted that there was a fairly big difference between her trained expressions of gratitude and politeness, and when she was genuinely happy or amused.

"You have no idea..." she started in a soft voice, with that same goofy grin still plastered on her face. "It's why I moved to Vale and applied to Beacon Academy, instead of just going to Haven Academy back home in Mistral. A fresh start, you know?"

"A-ah, s-sorry... I.. I hadn't really considered that..." Weiss apologized in an altogether uncharacteristic display as she stumbled over her words, realizing that she might have inadvertently been made life a little harder on her partner.

"Ah never mind all that!" Yang laughed as she broke through the somewhat solemn atmosphere and swung an arm around Pyrrha, pulling her close with a wide grin. "All that stuff is a continent away. This is Beacon! Here we're all just Hunters in training!"

"Y-yeah!" Ruby supported her sister with a cute fistpump. "Here you're just one of two crazy morning people who get up waaaay too early."

As the atmosphere between the two groups devolved back into nonsensical discussions and comfortable laughter, Shirou caught a glimpse of Pyrrha shooting him a warm and grateful smile from within Yang's embrace.

* * *

"_You bastard! I come home from a triple shift at the clinic, only to find you in bed with this... this slut!_" "_If you were ever home, maybe I wouldn't need to find comfort elsewhere!_" "_C-could you maybe h-hand my bra, then I'll lea-_" "_Oh no, _you _don't get to talk, homewrecker! And you mean this bra? Go fetch!_"

Blake's cat ears twitched as she was once again rudely awakened by the screaming of her upstairs neighbours. As her amber eyes snapped open and blinded by the early morning light coming from her window, she absentmindedly noted the piece of rather expensive looking lingerie falling down to the street below. As the argument above her devolved into throwing and breaking furniture, she just groaned and tried to block out the sound with her pillow.

"Another day in paradise..." she muttered to herself. Realizing the neighbours would be 'discussing' their marital issues for a while to come, as they always did when either one of them slept around, she got up from her bed with a sigh.

Looking at her Scroll, she noted it was only six thirty in the morning. As the sound of glasses and plates shattering wasn't all too pleasing this early, she connected the Scroll to her small stereo system and selected a random song from her music library. Putting the volume all the way up to one hundred, it finally succeeded in blocking out the heated discussion. After slipping into a comfortable kimono, she walked the ten paces to her kitchen - even if that was a bit of a generous term to use for the small sink and portable Fire Dust burner that she had at her disposal.

Opening the very 'mini', mini fridge, she cursed. She had once more forgotten to get groceries. Rummaging through the cabinet underneath the sink she found a small tin of tuna. Thinking to herself that it beat skipping breakfast altogether, and knowing she did always enjoy tuna, she let out a deep sigh as she grabbed a fork and sat back down on her bed.

As she ate her 'breakfast', she looked around at the small studio she had called her home ever since coming to Vale. Once more she told herself that it was only temporary. It was the cheapest place she could find and she needed to save whatever money she could for when she would apply to Beacon next year... And it wasn't too bad of a place. It was close to her job. She even had her own little shower! Even if most days the landlord 'forgot' to replace the Fire Dust crystal in the central heater and she had to make do with cold water...

"GRAAAH!" she groaned as she tossed her now empty tin of tuna into the trash can from where she sat. Or tried to, as it bounced from one edge of the can to the other, before unceremoniously landing down onto the floor. The grumbling noise originating from her stomach was all she needed to hear to know that she should probably go get more food...

"Who am I kidding... What am I doing with my life?"

Looking at the only decoration on her otherwise bland, concrete walls, she let her custom-made Gambol Shroud soothe her tired mind. She had hung it in full display, more to remind her of her goal of becoming a Huntress than for its aesthetic value. For a brief moment, her doubts about being accepted into Beacon at all, resurfaced. What if they had her in a database somewhere as a White Fang member? Would she be rejected? Or worse, arrested?

Shaking her head to dispel the dark thoughts, she once more reaffirmed her course. She would make it into Beacon! She just had to. Because... What else would she do with her life?

"Just one more year." She told herself. "It'll be over before you know it, Blake..."

* * *

"I'm looking at her right now" a male voice confirmed to someone on the other end of a Scrollcall. "Of course I'm out of sight! What am I, an amateur?"

As he tracked the raven-haired beauty with her Faunus trait hidden beneath two bows, leaving the communal entrance of a run-down apartment building wearing a Pasta Palace uniform, his mouth twitched into a savage grin.

"Just tell the boss, will you!" he admonished the excitedly chattering voice. "I've got a feeling he'll want to take care of this one personally. He was furious when she up and left in the middle of a raid... And where do I find her? At a Pasta Palace joint of all places!"

After sharing a few laughs, he chuckled darkly. "Aye, aye, just don't forget my finder's fee. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to find her."

Seemingly satisfied with the response he received, he said his curt goodbye and ended the call. Pulling his generic, black hood over his head to hide the canine ears adorning the sides of his head, he put down the binoculars he had trained on the building for a good few hours. Making sure to stay a good distance away from her to better blend into the crowds, he trailed after the girl to her place of employment. No way he was letting her out of his sights now that he found such a high-profile deserter...

* * *

After a week of classes, which weren't all that interesting to him - save for the combat classes led by Glyn- erh, professor Goodwitch - which served as a decent means of measuring the overall combat prowess of his fellow freshmen, Shirou found himself once more walking along the streets of Vale to his apartment. Already having finished his homework, and after admonishing his teammates (save the diligent Velvet) for trying to copy his assignments, he had opened up the bounty board of the Hunter's Association Ozpin had gotten him access to.

As he had expected, the contract on the Arachnide Broodmother in the Emerald Forest was still left unfulfilled. He had saved up a reasonable amount of Lien before the academic year started, but now that he had finally set up a reasonably functional workshop in one of the empty classrooms on Beacon's campus - and appropriately warded it to keep nosy students away - it was time to get a little more serious about his experiments into the various types of Dust and how they interacted with his brands of magecraft. His Runestones were useful, sure, but if he could do the same with Dust Crystals it would save him the need of having to explain why ordinary stones could produce gouts of fire...

Beacon did provide samples of the more common types of Dust for its students, but the quantities and quality were a little lacking for the experiments he had in mind. Not to mention that as a third-rate magus, as Rin always kept reminding him, he would probably burn through what they would provide for free in a heartbeat. And they didn't provide the Dust in their more expensive, crystal versions either.

Somewhat clumsily navigating to the note-taking application on his Scroll, he slowly started to type out the list of resources he would purchase after completing the contract. Even though he had been more tech-savvy than the average magus in his own world, the Dust-fueled technology of Remnant had been mind boggling at first. Over six months since he 'arrived' in Vale, and he still couldn't quite wrap his head around device in his hand.

As he struggled to type out the list in his mind to keep track of it all, his ears suddenly picked up an all too familiar sound. The clashing of metal against metal. Pocketing his Scroll, he tracked the sound to a nearby alley. He wasn't quite the same, idiotic teen he had been at the start of the Holy Grail War anymore, which showed as he pressed his back to the wall and stealthily snuck a peek around the corner.

It took less than a second to recognize the Grimm masks worn by the dozen or so cloaked individuals standing near the entrance of the alley. Members of the White Fang... He knew they had recently started expanding their operations in the Kingdom of Vale, and the city proper, but to so openly fight, even in this somewhat deserted part of town. '_They're getting bolder..._' he thought to himself as he grimaced and went over his options. Should he follow after them to try and find their hideout in the city, or deal with them now and have the authorities get the answers out of them?

At that point, he managed to look past the veritable wall of bodies in the narrow alleyway. Giving him a view of what they were all looking at. One of the larger White Fang members, with a more intricate cloak, was fighting a girl in... in a fast food-franchise uniform? One glance at the man's crimson red, chokuto - a straight, one-edged sword that he would have called 'Japanese' back in his own world - and he knew all he needed to know. _Adam Taurus_. He recognized the name from the wanted posters strewn around government buildings in Vale. One of the leaders of the White Fang. And judging by the history of his weapons, _Wilt_ and the scabbard-rifle _Blush_, his way to the top had been a bloody one.

The girl he was currently fighting under loud encouragements and whistles from the present White Fang members, expertly wielded her own unique weapon - _Gambol Shroud_ \- one that could shift between a katana and a cleaver in one hand, and the gun-scabbard in her other. She was _good._ Especially when taking into account her strange Semblance that allowed her to create clones of herself to disorient her opponents. But she wasn't _good enough_, he grimmly concluded. And she was clearly tiring already while her dance partner was still going strong. After a glance around, confirming there were no spectators, he sent a quick message to Ozpin using his Scroll and quietly muttered his aria.

"**Trace On.**"

Feeling the familiar hilts of Kanshou and Bakuya form in his hands as he flooded the gaps in his body with Prana, he decided on a fairly simple approach. He might have moved on from his 'rush in head-first' phase and gotten a bit smarter when it came to battle, but let it be known that Shirou Emiya had not stopped pursuing his ideal of becoming a Hero of Justice. As such, he quietly lunged forward, slamming the pommels of his blades onto two of the spectators' necks - and promptly knocked them out, intent on helping out the ex-White Fang member that just wanted to better her life and make up for her mistakes.

Before they hit the ground and signified his joining the skirmish, he pivoted on his feet, before kick another of the goons with his reinforced, steel-tipped combat boot, sending him barreling into three of the others and knocking them into a heap on the ground. All of them stopped to stare at the sudden intrusion to their fight as he jumped back a few meters and took a provocative stance. He couldn't quite make out their expressions underneath those Grimm masks, but the girl seemed wholly confused by his presence. After a few seconds of tense silence, he felt his lips curl into a confident smirk. A habit he would forever ascribe to having Archer's memories.

"What? Let's not break up the party on my account" he remarked, before sending a look towards the girl. "You don't mind if I butt in, do you?"

She blinked a few times, before a small and clearly grateful smile graced her tired face. "Not at all, I could use the assist."

Chuckling, he gestured for the goons who had gotten back on their feet and had pulled out their own weapons.

"Well then... Let's dance."

* * *

Blake was starting to tire. She didn't know how the hell the White Fang had tracked her down, but she should have known it would only have been a matter of time... Ribbons weren't exactly a good disguise, after all. Inwardly admonishing herself, she kept her face straight, devoid of emotions as she faced off against her former lover and leader. After a short shouting match, he had declared that she would pay for her betrayal with her life. How stereotypical.

Theatrics aside, she knew all too well how Adam fought and held no illusions that he outclassed her by quite a bit... By using her Semblance she managed to stay a few paces ahead of him in their clash, but he knew her techniques equally as well and she was starting to lose more and more ground... Which was the moment that part of his entourage suddenly collapsed, signifying the unexpected visitor.

A man, in his late teens, perhaps early twenties, with two beautiful, curved blades. One white, one black, wearing a sturdy looking, red overcoat. His mostly white hair, with only loose strands of red remaining, seemed a little odd, but who was she to judge? His stance was full of holes, but after the fight between him and the goons continued, he made short work of them. '_This guy is good..._' She thought to herself. Not that she had all that much time to gawk, considering that Adam had increased the ferocity of his already lightning fast strikes and was once more out for blood...

His longer and heavier blade was not something she could parry with her speed-oriented weapon, so she resorted to parrying and dodging. Whenever she was just a tad too slow, she shifted away, leaving a duplicated to be mercilessly cut down by the blood-seeking _chokuto_. They traded strike after strike. Adam's blade often being parried and cutting deep into the stone pavement beneath their feet, before effortlessly being pulled free and immediately shifted into a follow-up attack.

In the heat of their battle, neither one of them noted that the sound of fighting coming from the unexpected visitor and the goons had started to quiet down. As a shoddily parried strike from Adam sent her careening towards the wall, she just managed to twist herself in the air to land with her feet against the wall, before kicking off and propelling herself back at Adam in one fluid motion, blade poised to strike.

Her ex's reflexes once more proved too great for her to surmount, as she just managed to avoid being cut in twain by a heavy swing of his blade. As her clone shattered and sent a disorienting hail of stone his way, she flipped through the air, over his head and sent a few quick swipes with her blade his way. Silently cursing as he just managed to catch her strikes with his scabbard, she let herself cheer a little in her mind as he got caught unaware by the pistol shots coming from her own sheathe. It didn't manage to break through his thick Aura, but it was a start.

That's when she slipped up. And quite literally at that. She hadn't kept track of her surroundings and with a sickening crack, she landed on an outstretched limb of what she quickly concluded was another White Fang member. Knocked out, judging by the lack of a response at the crushing of his leg. She tried to regain her balance, but the unexpected hindrance proved to be too much. Careening into the ground, painfully landing on her hip, her head bounced off of the concrete.

As she did her best to steady her blurry vision and fight through the pain, she was jolted back into full consciousness by the loud clanging of metal. A few dozen centimeters above her head, Adam's blade was halted by two crossed, curved swords. As sparks harmlessly rained down on her chest and her saviour somehow managed to push back against Adam's monstrous strength - which she knew all too well was nothing to scoff at - the sight of clashing red, black and white blades was replaced by a red and black blur.

Moments later, she saw Adam fly backwards and slam into the side of a dumpster. As he slouched to the ground with a pained grunt, she could tell from the significant dent in the metal that this mystery fighter might even rival Adam's strength. Looking up, she was struck by the sight of a tall back, standing steadfast in a defensive stance in front of her. Absentmindedly she noted the sound of sirens approaching.

Judging by the slight shift of his head as he got back up with a pain-filled grunt, Adam had noticed too. She tried to get up herself, but the sharp, stabbing headache successfully encouraged her to stay down. The two swordsmen stared at each other for a few moments. The sound of sirens gradually getting louder, before Adam's annoyed voice cut through the tense silence of the alleyway.

"What's a Human doing interfering in a fight between Faunus?"

Despite the strange sensation of tiredness as her eyes started to droop shut on their own, she struggled to stay awake as long as she could. Why did the back of her head feel wet all of a sudden? Her saviour seemed to tilt his head, as if he were pondering over his answer.

"I thought the White Fang was all about equality?" he asked in a voice that seemed to state something obvious. As if Adam had asked whether the sky was blue. "What does it matter whether someone is Human, or Faunus? If they're in trouble and I have the power to help them, why shouldn't I?"

It might have started that way, but Blake knew all too well that sentiments within the larger parts of the organization had long since shifted to a far more radical way of thinking... Ever since her parents had stepped down as figureheads and had been replaced by far more militant members. Adam too seemed stumped by his reply, but after a few moments he just let out a 'tschk', before he turned to look at her. She couldn't see his eyes, but she just knew, despite her steadily darkening vision, that he was staring at her.

"You might think you got away, Blake" he started in a deadly calm voice, devoid of emotion. So different from the kind, if troubled teen she had once been in love with that it sent shivers down her spine. "But I'll find you again... I'll always find you."

Blake just managed to see two blades, one black and one white, cutting through the air like discs. Chasing after Adam, but cutting into stone instead as he leapt from wall to wall and disappeared onto the roof of the building. The alleyway was bathed in alternating red and blue lights, as the figure standing protectively in front of her relaxed his stance with a deep sigh. The last thing Blake saw before everything turned black, was worried, amber eyes looking her way. For a moment, they seemed to shine like golden lights in the dark.

* * *

**Omake: Dinner and a Show**

Instead of having dinner with the rest of the freshmen in the cafeteria of the Academy's main hall that night, Shirou found himself savouring the utterly blissful expressions of his teammates, Glynda and even Ozpin in the dormitory's otherwise deserted kitchen area as they enjoyed the lavish feast he had prepared for them. It had become a staple that Glynda demanded he cook dinner whenever she helped him out on a job. And while more often than not, 'helped him out' meant 'inviting herself to partake in his food afterwards', it's not like he really minded. Seeing people enjoy his cooking was one of his greatest joys in life after all.

Speaking of said temperamental, telekinetic blonde, she seemed to be quietly moaning as she savoured a bite of one of the side dishes.

"Shirou-kun... As always your food was well worth the trouble" she said in an uncharacteristically sultry voice.

Before Shirou recovered from the sudden change in her demeanor, his partner suddenly spoke up in a tone far sharper and more serious than he had ever expected her to use. "Aren't you getting a little too familiar with _my partner_, _professor_ Goodwitch?"

Said overly familiar professor hummed in thought before she smiled at him. "What can I say, we've gone on a few hunting contracts together in the last few months. When you're fighting for your lives side by side in the thick of it, people tend to grow _closer..._"

Still stunned, Shirou could only watch in mounting disbelief as Velvet, shy and innocent _Velvet_, slammed her small fist onto the table and joined Ruby in glaring at the blonde professor opposite her.

"I only really just met Shirou today, but just a few hours ago he stood up against a bully for me. Breaking his hand just because he insulted me... I-I think that means he cares a lot about me..."

She turned her head to him, her bunny ears drooping over head in an adorable manner as her big brown eyes seemed to water and her lips got together in a cute pout. "D-d-don't you, senpai?"

As Shirou started to wonder how Velvet knew Japanese terms, he suddenly realized Glynda had referred to him as Shirou-_kun_ earlier as well... Where was all this coming from all of a sudd-

"Hmmmm, _handsome_" Yang interrupted the already overworked gears in his head, completely grinding them to a halt by seductively putting her arms around his neck from behind and resting her head on his shoulder as bright red eyes stared straight into his own.

"I thought you were kidding when you said you were good in the kitchen the other day... Maybe I should take you for myself instead of letting my sister have you... "

"Yang you traitor! As if _my partner_ would want a raging beast like you!" Ruby shouted from across the table as the conversation started to get more and more heated with every exchange.

In the midst of this sisterly spat, Velvet leaned towards him from his other side, rubbing her bunny ears against his cheeks.

"Neh, senpai" she started in a soft voice with flustered cheeks. "Aren't my ears soft? Don't you want to stroke them? I-if it's you I wouldn't mind. They could be all yours, you know... _I_ could be all yours. I have a bunny tail too..."

"Hah!" Yang suddenly shouted. "As. If. A _man_ like _handsome_ here would be interested in bestiality or jailbait. No... What he needs is _a woman's touch..."_

This was of course answered by loud gasps from said accused bestiality- and jailbait-subjects as they simultaneously stood up and slammed their little fists on the table, all the while glaring at the red-eyed blonde. Which he couldn't help but compare to the adorable glare a kitten could give a ball of wool to intimidate it into giving away the secret of its fluffiness. Kittens with explosive claws, that is.

As Yang started to move her hands down his chest in a seductive manner, Glynda cleared her throat and said in a sharp tone "Isn't that a little inappropriate behaviour between students, miss Xiao Long? Perhaps it is time I send you for an early round of detention... And before the year even really started, no less."

_'Oh thank all that is holy finally someone regains their sens-_ Turning to him, her stern teacher's expression melted instantly as the blush on her cheeks returned and she continued in a sultry voice. "And besides, Shirou-_kun_... I'm the only _real_ woman here..."

At that Yang let out a loud laugh. "Oh please, _professor_. I said a _woman's _touch. Not a _grandmother's!_"

"Why you...!" said older woman sputtered as she raised her riding crop, simultaneously lifting all the cutlery on the table using her Telekinesis.

Shirou could do little but stare pleadingly for help at the headmaster, sitting on the opposite end of the table from him. He was afraid to speak up during this rapidly heatening discussion, but his silent message was clear as day. '_please... please help me.'_

Instead of doing what he had expected Ozpin to do; return order to his staff and students_,_ instead the elusive headmaster smirked. And in a poof of rainbow coloured light, his appearance changed to that of an older, almost grandfatherly man in an old-fashioned suit. His blood red eyes and sharp canines stood out as he grinned widely and put his feet on the table, kicking back in his chair. With a flick of his fingers two small portals opened out of nowhere, dropping a large fast food-style soda cup in one hand and an XXL box of popcorn in his other.

As the now revealed Zelretch smirked in a way only the Kaleidoscope could or would, Shirou felt all hope leave him.

"This is why I brought you to this world, Shirou-kun" the rotting bloodsucker said in between sips from his drink and several hands full of popcorn - popcorn that seemed to squirm and try to escape his grasp, while the transparent straw of the soda cup showed a suspiciously red liquid coursing through it...

"I was wondering if your unintentional harem was a fluke, or whether you attract hot women like flies in any setting. It seems my hypothesis was correct."

In a quiet whisper, soft enough to remain unheard by the bickering women and girls, but presumably loud enough for Zelretch to hear, he asked pleadingly with a sliver of hope remaining in his voice "D-does that mean the experiment is over and you'll save me?"

As Ruby extended Crescent Rose into it's scythe form, Velvet projected a gatling gun and Yang unfolded her Ember Celica gauntlets to join the already combat ready Glynda with a floating assortment of knives (some of which seem to have been brought over from the kitchen to strengthen their numbers) in a mexican stand-off - Zelretch just smirked his evil smirk.

"Whatever gave you that idea, Shirou-kun~. In fact, I think we're a few guests short of a truly great show..."

Behind the Wizard Marshall, a human-sized portal opened and out stepped Rin, Sakura, Ilya and Taiga. The four of them, seeing the current stand-off, seemed to instinctively grasp what was happening.

"_Senpai_" Sakura started in a dark voice, as the shadows around her seemed to flicker and expand, somehow growing mouths with rows upon rows of sharp teeth and gleaming red eyes. "_Who. E__**x**__ac__**tly**__. A__**re**__. __**These. Women?**_"

"Yes _Onii-chan_" his little sister stated in a cold, clinical voice as she shot him an all too angelic smile. "I'd like to know that too... Berserker!"

Taiga didn't seem at all off-put by the blatant displays of magic, nor by the hulking behemoth mass of anger and muscle materializing behind Ilya, as she pulled out the Torashinai from behind her back which immediately started leaking bloodlust, and roared liked the tiger none dared call her - immediately joined by Berserker's own battleroar that shook the very foundations of the dormitory.

"SHIIIIIRRRROOOUUUUUU!"

"**GGGGRAAAAAAAAAHHH!**"

Rin was wearing her idol-persona mask up until that point, smiling sweetly at her. Somehow, that smile gave him more of a sense of foreboding danger than Berserker's blatant display of overwhelming hostility and power.

"Emiya-kun... We lose track of you for just a few months... and... and..." Cracks started to form in her mask as her lips, eyes and eyebrows twitched separately, before she screamed "YOU ALREADY ATTRACTED A WHOLE. NEW. HAREM!? You... YOU BAKA!"

The last thing Shirou saw before a literal barrage of Gandr-curses knocked him out, was cutlery shooting across the room in _every _direction, shotgun blasts deafening him as Yang's arms used his shoulders to steady her aim, Velvet's gatling gun starting its warm up rotation, Ruby disappearing in a whirlwind of rose petals before appearing behind Rin poised to strike with Crescent Rose, Sakura's shadows taking physical forms and surrounding the entire group - and Berserker jumping up and landing in the middle of the large dining table as his unwieldy, stone axe-sword materialized in his hands ready to cleave everything into bits while Ilya shaped half a dozen bird familiars from her hair and madly cackled "KILL THEM ALL BERSERKER!"

The destruction of the table had the unintended effect of scattering the remaining food, which seemed to send everyone else into a mad rage as well...

And through it all he picked up the soft, amused chuckling of a certain Dead Apostle Ancestor.

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

Well, there you have it folks! This chapter is a little longer than the previous two and we experience things from a few more perspectives. Around six or seven I believe? Perhaps a bit too many, what do you think? I got a lot of positive feedback about Glynda's appearance, and I must admit I quite like her character, so we had a bit more on that end this chapter. This time, Shirou is the one getting rescued. For reference, the 'pillar' of spider silk that cost all of her mental strength to halt in place, was large enough to support an elephant-sized spider. Yup.

I can already see comments about this coming, so let me elaborate. The limits of Glynda's telekinesis have always been a bit iffy in my eyes, considering how she pretty much restores broken pillars, walls and the like with it. In the foodfight scene it takes her all of five seconds to remove every trace of the scuffle, apart from the foodstains (Which I feel was intentional to leave some work for the perps). My reasoning for this being so difficult for her is based around multiple factors: weight of the thing, acceleration, physical dimensions - the whole shabam.

We also progress a little on the Blake-front. Shirou wouldn't be Shirou if he didn't run across the fight in the alleyway. As for why he's casually walking by, whereas the streets are otherwise devoid of life; both Shirou and Blake live on the edges of the residential district where housing is considerably cheaper. It's not a nice area to walk around when it gets dark… And well, most people just don't have the skills, nor balls to interfere with the freaking White Fang and would probably just skidaddle out of there…

I've also gotten a few curious requests about team not-JNPR and their members. As you can see, they're somewhat introduced in this chapter, although the focus lies more on Pyrrha. I'm thinking of having around one viewpoint of a not-JNPR member (roughly) per chapter. Writing a _coherent_ story from a dozen viewpoints is difficult, folks! I also don't really have anything new or refreshing to say about Ren and Nora's dynamics. There was this one RWBYxFate crossover where the author went fairly deep into Nora's backstory and how she got her particular brand of distortion (as Shirou realizes after a few interactions), which is a plot line that hit me right in the feels(I think it was _Remnants of a Cursed Paradise_ \- but that one is honestly too long for me to scour through and check). But yeah, I don't think I can come up with anything original, so I'll probably pretty much skip them. Sorry in advance!

**Notice: **I'm still looking for beta readers O:) !

**If you're interested in reading more of my stories, please do check out my profile page! There you can find my 'Fate Salvation' (95k+) fic, of which chapter 7 is currently being worked on, with chapter six released only a few days ago. My 'Tempered Nerves' fic has been a bit slow and is still stuck at chapter 1, but don't fret, I haven't abandoned it. It just feels like a waste to not focus on Shared Ideals and Salvation while there's still wind in those sails :)**


	4. Chapter 4 - Resolutions & The Black Cat

**Author's Note**

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Chapter four has arrived! I suppose my sudden rush of inspiration that started with chapter two hadn't quite dried up yet. While I have your attention, let me calm apparently most of your nerves a little: I've decided on a plotline for **Jaune**! Yes, Yes. I know. I have voiced my doubts in previous review replies and author's notes, but I came up with his own little story Arc (pun-intended) that fits perfectly into some of the other plans I had for this fic. Don't start going nuts yet, though! His planned introduction is still several chapters out.

Another thing that keeps popping up is **Velvet** being a first year student and what this means for CFVY. I've talked about this in previous Review answers, but yes. I do in fact know that in canon, Velvet is a member of CFVY and that they are a second year team. As you may have noticed, she isn't the only - and certainly not the last - character that is out of place in this fic, and as such you should probably just consider this all an AU (alternate universe). I have and I will keep making changes to better fit my narrative. Loose ends will be addressed when I feel it best suits the story, so please be patient :) I'll try not to disappoint.

**Hey folks! I'm looking for ****Beta Readers** **for 'Shared Ideals', as well as for my other recent Fic; 'Tempered Nerves'. If you're interested, please do send me a PM!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Fate/Stay Night, nor RWBY.**

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**Reviews**

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**Lost Stardust1 - **Kanshou and Bakuya do actually have 'bonus damage' against Grimm due to their anti-monster properties :) I think I mentioned how they sliced through the Grimm 'like a knife through butter' in either chapter 1 or 2. The spidersilk isn't a 'monster' in and of itself, it's something created by a monster.

**Nijuuken - **Good question! Exactly how Anesidora does what it does isn't explained in canon as far as I know. Apart from some handwavium-not-quite-magic-but-yes-kind-of-magic reasoning. I have my own explanation for it, and I plan to go into it in some more detail somewhere between chapters 5 and 7, along with some long overdue screen time for Velvet :) I meant to give her some attention in this chapter, but it already felt altogether too bloated without the rather _heavy_ portion I have planned for her.

**FerunaLutelou - **That's... Uhm... Wow. Thanks, for that :P I hadn't stopped to consider that, to be honest. I guess Shirou hadn't either. The Shirou in this timeline at least :P Who knows, maybe another character will come to the same startlingly simple realization that really should not have been overlooked. In due time of course :) I don't quite recall those daggers you mentioned, but I'm guessing it's from the HF-route? Or perhaps one of the games? I'll take your word for it though! Those might come in handy.

**Alexkellar - **I admit, I may have been hammering her misfortune a tad, but she is a deserter from a terrorist organization. That's generally not the greatest start to a new life haha. Poor Blake though. She's one of my favourite RWBY characters by far, so I feel a little bad about what she's gone through, and what she still _will_ go through... O:)

**All Other Reviews - **Thanks for the comments, critique, advice and speculation everyone :) Really gives a mental push to roll out another chapter. And the more discussion and speculation there is, the more it makes me think about the plotline and what's still to come, which is immensely helpful!

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**Chapter 4 - Resolutions & The Black Cat**

* * *

When Blake woke up, she groggily enjoyed the feeling of her pillow. She could hear some faint chatter. Talking? Those damn upstairs neighbours were probably at it again... Ugh. She pushed herself back in her pillow, only to feel a sharp pain shoot through her head, jolting her wide awake. She froze up as the events of the night rushed back at her. After another hellish shift at that gods forsaken restaurant, she had made her way back home.

All the way back, she would occasionally get an odd feeling of being watched. Several times she had carefully inspected her surroundings, or stopped and waited around a corner to see if someone she recognized were to follow after her. Despite the fact that that odd feeling never left her, she couldn't find any traces of a tail, so she ascribed it to just being paranoid. The White Fang had never managed to get a foothold in the heavily policed and guarded Vale, after all.

When she had gotten home and slammed her door shut behind her, she had immediately felt on edge. Without hesitation, she activated her Semblance, leaving a clone behind as she jumped for Gambol Shroud, plucking it from the wall as she landed and rolled across her room. And as it turned out, not a second too early. As soon as she had taken cover behind her sturdy bed, machine gun fire ripped through her window and obliterated the clone, her kitchen and her walls.

As soon as it stopped she crawled along the floor, out of the line of sight from her window and towards the shattered remains of her door. Stopping next to it in a crouch with her weapon drawn, her cat ears helped her pick up the sounds of muffled footsteps hurriedly making their way through the hallway outside. Coming in her direction...

The next few minutes were a mad dash and struggle through a number of White Fang members as she jumped from wall to wall, kicking, punching and slicing a path to freedom for herself - unloading several magazines of her pistol scabbard in the process. Eventually she made it to the window at the end of the hallway, jumping down from the second floor and agily landing in a crouch in the alleyway next to her apartment building.

And that was exactly where _he _had been waiting for her... With his arms crossed, leaning up against the wall. And with that infuriating smirk on his face that just screamed everything had gone _exactly_ according to his plan. If it hadn't been for that unexpected ally, she wouldn't have made it out at all. That would have been the end for her, right then and there...

'_You might think you got away, Blake._' his last words rung through her head, once more sending a cold shiver down her spine. '_But I'll find you again... I'll always find you_.'

Doing her best not to agitate what she now assumed was a wound on the back of her head, she shifted slightly in her bed and carefully opened her eyes. This wasn't her bed. That wouldn't have made sense anyway, so good. She was still sane at the very least. That means that head wound couldn't be too bad, right? Blinking a few times to clear her sight, it took a few seconds before she realized where she was. A hospital bed. Wait, if she wasn't home, then why did she hear her upstairs neighbours arguing...?

Ah. Looking around the room, she noticed the man who had jumped in during her fight with Adam. He was leaning to the wall next to her room's window, peering outside as he talked to someone on his Scroll. The crimson overcoat she had noticed during the fight was loosely hanging off of the back of a chair next to her bed, and she couldn't help but admire his physique - which his form-fitting, black body armour did little to hide.

She guessed him to be around twenty, a few years older than her, but despite that his presumably once fully red hair had mostly turned white already. Now with proper lighting, it looked even stranger than it had done during the brief glances of it she had gotten in the dimly lit alleyway. And yet... She had to admit it kind of suited him. Oddly enough.

"...no I already missed the last Bullhead back to campus and considering this hospital is only a few blocks away from my apartment, I'll just sleep there tonight. I've got some... things to sort out at home. I probably won't be back until Sunday afternoon." "Alright, good night Ruby." "...Sorry, can't be helped. I'll make something nice for dinner when I get back, alright? Maybe some cookies too, hmm?" *sigh* "Yes, Ruby... Uh-huh. Yup. Alright, ba-bye now... Yes, you too. Yup. By-. GoodnightRubesbyeee~!"

Blake quietly chuckled as she watched her saviour's antics with this 'Ruby' person on the other end of the call. Whoever that girl was, she was clearly an excitable one. He let out a deep sigh before turning away from the window and finding her, wide awake and sitting upright in bed. For a few moments they just stared at one another in an awkward silence.

"Finally up?" he asked her with an odd mix of concern and amusement in his voice after he cleared his throat.

She nodded carefully, as to not further agitate the wound on the back of her head. She did her best to lighten the somewhat tense mood by chuckling, which came out far more awkward and hoarse than she had intended.

"Yeah hehe...he..." After clearing her throat and taking a grateful sip from a glass of water he passed to her from her nightstand, she quickly continued, doing her best to forget she never really was one for small talk. "A-any idea what the damage is? Apart from this killer headache..."

Luckily, he chuckled along with her. "Well, besides from a few scrapes here and there, you have a minor concussion and you needed a few stitches on the back of your head. The doctor ensured me it wasn't anything serious, if you we're worried about that."

"That's good..." she hummed. "Thanks... F-for, you know... Jumping in when you did. It's not something most people would've done."

The smile that found its way on his way was... a complicated one. It was warm, yes, but there was more in it. It was a tad wistful, with some hints of pain as his eyes seemed to drift off for a moment. As if remembering something painful, before it became more genuine.

"I suppose not..." he started as he sheepishly rubbed a hand through his hair. "But I'm not really one to run away when I'm in a position to help someone."

Remembering him saying something similar before she passed out in the alleyway, she nodded slowly. She could accept him being a good samaritan. Someone with his skills could afford to, after all. He's probably a Huntsman, so that would make it his job as well, right? But then why...

"So... Why are you here?" she asked him, growing a little wary of him. Did he know she used to be part of the White Fang herself? Was he keeping an eye on her? He seemed to catch on to the slight narrowing of his eyes as he placatingly held up his hands and chuckled.

"A couple of reasons. From what I could make out from... the few of his goons that were still conscious enough by the end of the fight to answer some of my questions, that 'Adam Taurus' figure has some personal issues with you. Considering he didn't exactly strike me as the honourable type that would wait for you to recover, and with you being down for the count, I figured it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out for you in the meantime."

His expression darkened a little as a frustrated scowl made its way onto his face. For a few brief moments, Blake feared that he would in fact turn her in. Was that why he was 'keeping an eye on her'? To make sure she didn't run away? His next words, however, both disproved her fears and stunned her all the same.

"The police officers that showed up to the scene were more inclined to arrest you along with them when they realized you were a Faunus too, instead of sending someone with you for protection..."

Letting out a deep sigh, he seemed to calm himself down, as he realized his voice had steadily started to rise. Taking a few moments and tiredly rubbing the bridge of his nose, his scowl lessened, once more replaced with the confident smirk she had seen him sport in battle.

"It seems that he went back into hiding to lick his own wounds, though. I'm fairly certain I broke at least a few of his ribs with that last kick."

Blake couldn't help but snort. She may have loved Adam at some point, but especially after tonight she had lost every bit of sympathy she still held for him in the deepest corners of her mind.

"I'm glad..." At that point she realized something that made her chuckle, as a faint blush forced its way onto her cheeks. "You came to my rescue in the alleyway, even watched over me while I was unconscious... And I just realized I haven't even introduced myself."

For the first time since... she couldn't quite recall how long it had been, if she was being honest with herself - she felt her lips curl into a genuine smile. "Blake. Blake Belladonna. Thanks, once again, for helping out when you did."

She felt oddly giddy when he returned her smile.

"Shirou Emiya. It's nice meeting you, Blake."

Despite her head injury, and the minor concussion she apparently had, Blake felt better than she had done in a long while. She'd made a friend, she thought, in the weirdest way possible. But how else would someone like her make friends, besides in the heat of battle? After a nurse came in to do some final check ups, she was informed she would either have to pay for the night in the hospital, or head home, seeing how there weren't any dangers to her health if she did so. That proved to quickly sour her mood once more. Her _home_. Her bullet ridden, doorless home that Adam was all too aware of.

As if he could read her thoughts, the good samaritan sitting next to her bed awkwardly rubbed the back of his head and spoke up with a slightly hesitant voice. She didn't know it yet, at the time, but years later Blake would look back on that very moment and realize that that one question was one of the most important ones of her life. Unwittingly setting her on a path to meet her closest friends, her fiercest enemies and in a sense, shaping her entire future. And most importantly, something she would forever be thankful for - it meant she would never again have to set foot inside a Pasta Palace or wear that ridiculous, orange uniform.

"Judging by your expression I take it that after tonight, you don't really have a place to go home to anymore?"

* * *

Leaning on the railing of their dorm room's balcony, Ruby Rose let out a sigh as her partner hung up on her. Sure, she may have been a little over excited - _again_ \- but it wasn't her fault. Really! Her partner had gotten into trouble, and she wasn't there, dammit! She nodded, strengthening her resolve. Her partner was always kind and understanding, but he never _really_ opened up to her or relied on her, or anyone else for that matter. Every morning, without fail, he woke all of them up in time for classes. He even prepared breakfast! And every other day or so, he'd cook a delicious dinner too. The thought alone made her start to drool again... Never mind the cookies he had promised.

'_No! Focus Ruby!_' She admonished her trailing of by slapping her cheeks. And yet, despite everything he did for them... He was still mostly a mystery. He trained alongside Pyrrha early every morning before the rest of their respective teams had even woken up. And yet from the few times she had talked about him with Pyrrha, who was also fairly curious about the redhead-going-white, he hadn't told her much of his past or abilities either. During the initiation he had created swords out of thin air and launched them like projectiles to keep the both of them safe. To keep _her_ safe. She assumed it was some kind of Semblance, and she had meant to ask him about it at some point...

Buuuut she had sort of hoped he would just come out and tell them all. Semblances could be rather personal to some, so it was common courtesy not to pry into them. But still! They were team members now. And the two of them even partners! While Yang and Velvet hadn't really seemed to notice, busy as they were with their own partnership and with the latter tutoring Yang on her homework - but Ruby had grown increasingly suspicious about the mysterious Shirou Emiya. And quite a bit jealous of how they weren't getting closer, like Yang and Velvet. Or Ren and Nora - those two were _always _hanging out together...

It's not that she didn't trust him, because she did, even if he didn't really share much about himself. When she had been stuck in the Arachnide webs, he had _literally_ saved her life! How couldn't she trust him after that? Early in the week he had spent all of his time with the team, like the rest of them, but the last few days he went out after dinner and wouldn't return until minutes before curfew. When she had asked him about it, he just gave her some generic excuse along the lines of 'extra training', or 'doing some research'...

Most people who met her assumed Ruby was a klutz and somewhat of an airhead. While she couldn't completely discount that notion, because let's be honest, she knew she kind of is at times... But that doesn't mean she's an idiot! She always prided herself on being able to tell a lie from the truth, and whenever Shirou gave her one of those excuses, she could tell that while he was being honest to a degree, he wasn't telling her the whole truth either.

The previous night she had had enough of his excuses and the distance he kept from them. From her. It might not have been the most trust-inspiring thing for a partner to do, but she had discretely followed after him when he left after dinner with an excuse of 'doing some research'. Making use of her Semblance to skirt along the rooftops of Beacon's faculty buildings, she had followed him to one of the older buildings at the edges of the campus. And that's where things got fuzzy.

She could remember seeing him walking near a particular building, but when she made to follow him... She... She wasn't quite sure why or how it happened, but at some point she had just decided that she had better things to do than follow around her partner. Before she knew it, she found herself in the communal dining hall, feasting on a stack of chocolate chip cookies, munching away her troubles.

Halfway through her evening snack, the realization that she had wanted to find out what he was doing in the evening hit her like a truck. Did she really have so little self-control as to not even be able to follow her partner for five whole minutes!? It had taken another plate of cookies to eat away her sorrows.

Slumping her head down on the balcony railing with a thud, she let out another, deep sigh. When Shirou had informed them he was going to pick up some things he had left behind in his apartment in Vale, she had immediately jumped on the chance to learn more about her partner. Maybe his apartment would tell her some more about him? He hadn't brought more than a few sets of clothes and basic supplies to Beacon. If only he and the ever diligent Velvet hadn't ganged up on him to remind her she had yet to do any of the week's homework... _Ugh_...

And now, of course, he had casually run into the White Fang. The _White Fang _of all criminal organizations to run into! And she, his _partner_, wasn't even there to back him up! Despite knowing that he could take care of himself, and that he even came to someone else's rescue, it still made her feel like a bad partner. They were supposed to have each other's backs, always. Right? But he didn't really seem to even want her help...

Maybe... Maybe he didn't actually like being around her? And all his kindness was just out of a sense of politeness? Or maybe it was her age... Clearly he saw her as someone he needed to protect. He already had, in fact... Did he view her like a kid that couldn't be relied on? The thought alone made her mood sour even further.

No! She wouldn't accept that! From here on out, she would prove to him that he _could_ in fact rely on her. She'd... She would... Ehm... Act more mature? As long as she didn't have to swear off cookies... Or, his headpats... '_NO! Bad, immature Ruby!_' She'd earn his trust the hard way, like she should have done from the start, instead of leaning into his headpats and praises, probably reinforcing his image of her being like a fragile, little sister... He'd need to start seeing her like a woman. Yes!

Ruby felt better about herself than she had done in days. She had decided on a course of action that would help her get closer to her partner. Instead of sneaking around and trying to ferret out his secrets by shaming their trust and trailing him from the shadows, she would just prove he could trust her in the first place. As soon as the high of deciding on a course had passed, however, she realized she didn't actually know just _how_ to go about doing that... Which is when the proverbial light bulb above her head blinked on.

* * *

Yang was nodding along to her little sister's rantings with an expression that screamed the utmost level of concentration. Inwards, however, she was doing the best she could to stop from smirking or teasing her. She could understand where Ruby was coming from, sure... Shirou hadn't really been too open with them, but hey, he was a private person. Probably with some dark, regretful past he'd rather keep to himself. She could understand that. She could respect him wanting to keep her out of those things, even.

Unlike her still fairly innocent and idealistic little sister, Yang was all too familiar with the darker parts of society. Both back on Patch and here in Vale she had ventured into the seedier night clubs and the first layers of the criminal 'underworld' looking for some traces of her mother. She had always done her best to keep Ruby far away from such places. She was far too cheerful and positive to concern herself with such things, after all. The cold, harsh truths of this world would only break her. And while Yang may be a tad bit rude and forceful with her at times, she absolutely adored her little sister - and would do anything to protect her. _Anything_.

That's why she hadn't really minded their captain not divulging any of the presumably darker parts of his history. She could tell he was probably trying to protect her, hell, _them _from it all too. But now Ruby came to her with the most comical of requests. And she was fairly certain that her adorable little sister had no idea what she was actually asking her. Of course, Yang knew that Ruby just wanted her partner to open up to her, but that didn't change the _way_ she asked for help...

Oh well... As Yang felt the tiniest trace of a teasing smirk break through her serious facade, she decided on a course of action. She would go along with Ruby's request. It wouldn't do to leave her stumbling in the dark when she was so... adamant about something, after all. It was rare to see her so straight-faced and devoted to a decision.

"...so Yang, _pleeaaasse~_! Teach me how to make Shirou see me as a _woman_!"

The teasing smirk fully broke through, she couldn't keep her face straight any more... She knew that as her big sister, she should _really_ set her straight. But could she? Could she really? '_Oh Rubes... You loveable, beautiful Rubes..._'

"Well... If you insist." She drawled, before a big grin made its way onto her face. "Leave it all to your big sister! We'll go shopping tomorrow... By the time the weekend is through, Shirou will see you as the beautiful, mature woman you are~!"

It would be several days before Ruby finally realized that this very moment was where she went wrong. At the time, however, she cheered and hugged her big sister. Wholly unaware of the horrors to come.

* * *

The early morning sun cast the entire Emerald Forest in a radiant, golden glow as he jumped from branch to branch, high up among the trees. He had arrived back at his apartment somewhere after two at night. After putting the wounded Faunus to bed, and waiting to make sure she was actually asleep - something which the prescribed medication helped with - it had taken him the remainder of the night to get this far out into the woods north-east of Vale.

The gatekeepers at Vale's borders had wished him good luck, but the initial wariness they had had the first time he asked to be let through in the dead of night, on his own, had long since passed. He had become a staple there after all, ever since Ozpin had gotten him access to the Hunters Association's contract board.

As he stealthily made his way towards the cobweb infested den of the Arachnide Broodmother he was hunting, he did his best not to think about the whispers he had overheard as he was let through the gate. Something about a betting pool in regards to what contract he would be fulfilling this time. Best not to think about such things... Although he couldn't quite fault them either. He had been taking up team-oriented contracts on his own for a good while now.

He could tell from the density of the webs underneath him, as well as the increasing frequency of the smaller Arachnide nests he had passed, that he was getting closer and closer to the heart of their territory. To the Elder Grimm that kept spawning more and more of its smaller kin in this part of the woods. While there are arguably more dangerous Elder Grimm in the wilds, Broodmothers are as notorious as their name would imply. Simply put, every few days, they deposit large egg sacks containing dozens of infantile Grimm. Ready to hatch in a matter of days...

While he was concerned with the uptick in White Fang activity in Vale, and Adam Taurus' arrival in the Kingdom in particular, he had already told Ozpin he would deal with this particular contract before the week was out. The Headmaster had intended to send a few fourth year teams after it earlier in the week, as the second year teams were scheduled to perform field tests in the woods starting monday. The presence of an agitated, or more likely, a_ royally pissed off_ Elder Grimm wasn't something he wanted to risk having inexperienced students encounter. And well... Shirou could generally do it safer and quicker.

Silently cursing as his feet slipped on a slippery piece of bark, he just managed to steady himself, before he would have tumbled straight down into a rather large web. Pausing a moment to level his breathing and focus on the task at hand, he carefully scanned the forest around him. With his Reinforced eyesight, few things remained hidden from him in the light of the morning sun. A thin fog coated the forest floor below, hiding the uneven spots from sight - '_something to keep mindful of_' he reminded himself.

It only took him another ten minutes to reach a small clearing covered from end to end in thick, overlapping layers of spidersilk. The glistening drops of morning dew adorning the varying, almost silver threads nearly blinded him. It would have made for a mesmerizing sight, straight out of an abstract book of art - if it hadn't been for the absolutely _massive_ white and black shape resting at the very bottom of the interlocked maze beneath him.

All but a handful of professional Hunters venturing out into the Emerald Forest on their own, would _turn tail and run _at this gruesome sight. An Elder Grimm in its den, surrounded by what looked like half a dozen, man-sized egg-sacks, is something usually taken on by a full team of trained Hunters - if taken on at all. Had this den been a few kilometers further away from Beacon and Vale, its highly unlikely that they would even have put a contract on its head. What was the saying? 'Let sleeping dogs lie'?

Let it be known, however, that Shirou Emiya was _not_ someone to whom that logic applied. He wasn't a trained Huntsman. Heck, considering his freshman year at Beacon Academy had only started a week ago, he could barely be called a Huntsman in Training. No. Shirou Emiya was a _Magus_.

"**Trace On.**"

His signature aria reverberated through the woods. Soft, like a whisper. And yet reaching further than any whisper had any right to. His mindset shifted. His thoughts were focused. The White Fang. The girl sleeping in his apartment. None of that occupied any portion of his mind as the gaps in his skin, his muscles, his very _bones_ were flooded with Prana, augmenting his speed, strength and reflexes several times beyond the limits of mortal men. Beyond the limits of trained Huntsmen. Archer's longbow- _his_ longbow formed in his hand. He already knew what weapon he was going to use.

As the sword formed in his outstretched hand, he started on the second step; Alteration. Twisting the dark, blood-lusting blade further and further into a stretched out mockery of a sword. A projectile. A bastardized arrow only the strongest of bows would be able to fire. It's a good thing he held one such bow in his hand.

A slight twist was the only indication that the Elder Grimm - nay, his _prey_ noticed the potent bloodlust emanating from the projectile that he had traced. The weapon is his hand thrummed, recognizing the scent of a monster close enough to Grendel for it to _hunger_ for its blood. Beady red eyes shifted upwards, trying to discern the origin of the foreboding sense of _coming_ _death_. Because that's all such a monster would ever be able to register upon feeling the presence of this blade of Beowulf.

The eerily intelligent eyes seemed to realize their situation, frantically shooting between their coming doom and their surroundings. Looking for a way out. _Any _way out. And yet it was all for naught, as a whisper rung out through the clearing before it could even move the muscles that had frozen up in fear.

"Go into the red plains, scarlet hound... **HRUNTING!**"

Had anyone been observing the hunter and his prey, they would have seen little else but a red flash as the blood seeking projectile effortlessly cut through the layers of silk to find its target deep down below him. The bowman lowered his weapon. Golden eyes with a grey gleam to them inspected the handiwork of their owner. The massive form of the Arachnide Broodmother lay still. Unmoving. The beady red eyes gradually dimming.

Nodding once to himself, and making sure that all around the clearing smaller groups of Arachnides had taken heed of the slaying of their Broodmother and were slowly congregating closer to the clearing, he projected four peculiar daggers. Covered with a multitude of delicately carved runes, he filled all four of them with a liberal amount of Prana before he threw each of them fifty or so meters out from the center of the clearing.

Dropping down to the center of the clearing, he noted the humm of ambient mana responding to the establishment of the Bounded Field that had gone up as soon as all four daggers had embedded themselves into the ground. Judging by the gradually increasing, frantic screeches and hissing, the daggers were fulfilling their task. As he peered upwards, he just managed to spot four columns of smoke starting to rise amongst the trees. Who said that being over-specialized was limiting?

After many painful and at times downright humiliating sessions with Rin, they had developed what was essentially a 'cleansing fire'-trap contained in a Bounded Field that kept the flames from spreading outwards, focusing the entirety of the contained Prana into streams of fire that aimed to set everything inside the field ablaze. Perfect to take care of a small horde of creatures. Each of these small daggers cost as much to trace as Hrunting due to the liberal amount of Prana required to both sustain the field and power the cleansing fire, but they are well worth the trouble whenever it comes to pest control.

As the hulking form of the fallen Elder Grimm slowly started to disperse into wisps of black smoke, Shirou pulled out his Scroll to take a picture of it before it was completely gone as proof of the completion of the contract, forwarding it to both Ozpin and the office of the Hunter's Association. He set up a much simpler Bounded Field around his immediate vicinity, meant to keep from being detected by sight, smell and sound. Just what he needed to keep the anger of the frantic Arachnides around him from descending upon him during his next, somewhat tedious task.

He gathered as much of the nearby spidersilk as he felt comfortable carrying back to his workshop at Beacon. A relatively simple application of Alteration proved useful to temporarily remove the intense stickiness of the substance, allowing him to more comfortably wrap it into a large coil he could swing over his shoulder. During the initiation the stuff had proved to be far more durable than it had any right to be. Who knows what he could make from it, given some time to experiment?

* * *

"I don't mind all of you joining me on my workout, especially since Shirou is spending the weekend in Vale" the red-haired amazon started as she eyed her teammates with pity in her voice. "But I don't think it's really going to be working out..."

Weiss refused to accept that notion, however. She was dressed in a simple set of exercise clothing, and holding a steaming hot cup of coffee as if it were the only thing keeping her from falling back asleep. And if she was being honest with herself, it really was. Contrary to what her team believed, but was too afraid to say out loud, the white-haired team captain hadn't seen fit to abuse her position to enact some sort of sadistic wrath upon them.

"I'm not saying that we'll be doing this _every _day, but it would be good for us to set a day to dedicate to team practice."

While it had only been one week since they started attending Beacon Academy and ended up in a team together, Weiss had already felt the need to slam her head through the wall of their shared dorm room on more than one occasion. She had pushed back against the wishes of her strict father, proven herself in a challenge that had been specifically chosen to be insurmountable for her and made her way Vale - all so she could become her own person. And a Huntress at that.

"I know it's only been a week, but it's never too early to start working on our teamwork. Most teams in our year won't start specifically practicing routines and combination attacks until a month or so before the Vytal Festival. If we start now, we'll have a head start, increasing our chances to be chosen to represent Beacon Academy in the tournament!"

She was Weiss Schnee. She might not particularly like what her father was doing to _their _family company - not that she would publicly admit to that - but she was still the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. As such, she felt like she should hold herself to the highest standards. During the initiation she had proven that she was a cut above the average freshmen. It hadn't been anything but expected that she would be appointed to be the captain of whatever team she would be placed in. And right of the bat, she had found herself the best partner she could have for; the renowned _Pyrrha Nikos_!

"And we don't just have to measure up against our peers, oh no... Don't forget that teams from higher years are also contending for the _same_ slots! They've had literal years, in some cases, to perfect their teamwork. To get used to each other's strengths, weakness and Semblances."

Almost right of the bat things had gotten... difficult for her. While she thought her partner was the perfect match for her, the duo they had been saddled up with was anything but. Perhaps the reserved Li Ren would have been someone she could have appreciated, had he not been so _insufferably lazy_. Whenever he got serious he displayed uncanny strategic awareness and a combat prowess that could have been ranked in the top echelon of their year. And yet he always seemed to put in the minimum effort required to pass whatever challenge came his way.

"I thought it prudent that we take today, our first day off since coming to Beacon, to fully dedicate to getting to know each other's fighting styles so we can start working on everything that we still lack. Seeing how Pyrrha gets up this early every day, we should try to follow her example and push ourselves beyond our limits!"

And don't get her started on Nora... The girl was a dunce. A complete and utter dunce. She bounced all over the place, lacking any sense of grace and strategy. She just relied on her overwhelming strength to barrel head first through any obstacle. Whether she was supposed to demolish a target or not. Half the time Weiss wondered whether the girl even realized she was training to be a Huntress, or whether she thought her life was some kind of video game where everything just needed to be squashed...

"Alright, we're all done with our breakfasts. Let's head out!" she stated with conviction as she slammed her empty coffee mug down on their breakfast table. With a confident nod to her partner she gestured for her to take the lead. "Pyrrha, we'll be relying on you for the warm-up, so please take us along with you on your routine!"

Yes! She just needed to whip this sorry bunch - save Pyrrha - into shape! They would thank her once they'd pushed past their laziness. And if she had to push them past it screaming and kicking, she would just have to do so. For_ their_ benefit, of course. As she strolled out of the dining hall with her head held high in self-righteous conviction, she completely missed how her entire team was giving her defeated looks.

As far as they were able to, at least. Ren's eyes were closed, and for once it wasn't Nora who dragged him along after their leader, but the other redhead on their team. The reason for this? Simple. Nora had fallen asleep sometime during Weiss her 'motivational' speech and was currently being half-carried, half dragged underneath Pyrrha's other arm.

"What God did I piss off to deserve _Ice Queen_ over there for a captain..." Ren groaned in a voice that perfectly mirrored the exhaustion he displayed on his face, as soon as said captain was out of earshot, of course.

Pyrrha blinked, taken aback by the rather harsh statement coming from the boy who was generally quite reserved and soft spoken.

"That's a little harsh, wouldn't you say, Ren?" Pyrrha tried to admonish her teammate, even if she did somewhat agree with him that her partner was pushing them a little too hard. "I'm sure she'll mellow down a little once she's gotten used to this place..."

"Chop chop, Team! We're losing daylight!"

As Weiss her impatient voice rung out through the empty hallway, Pyrrha couldn't help but wince. '_Not helping your case, partner..._'

"Did I say Ice _Queen_? I meant Ice _Dominatrix_..." Ren grumbled. "What other possible reason could there be for this? She enjoys watching us suffer. I just know it."

And despite however much she had tried to placate both Ren and Nora to go along with their captain for the sake of team morale over the past week, she couldn't find any proper words to do so this time around. She chose to just let out a long sigh instead as she dragged her two comatose teammates along with her. When this day was through, she was going to have to have a long talk with the tightly wound up domina-. Despite her best intentions, the absurdity of the fact that she had inwardly almost referred to Weiss as... well, _that_, caused her lips to curl into the smallest of smiles.

You know what, maybe this was going to be good for Weiss... She was far too tense and demanding towards herself - and in extension, her teammates - to be able to survive _four years_ of Huntress training. Pyrrha herself knew somewhat _why_ her partner was like this. She too had been expected to achieve greatness from an early age. She could only imagine that being the heir to the largest Dust conglomerate on Remnant was stressful. Perhaps their situations were different, sure, but she had went through hours upon hours of intense training. Day in day out ever since she had proven to be a prodigy when it came to combat.

Unlike her partner, however, she had already realized there was more to life than constantly striving for perfection. That's why she had come all the way out here to Beacon, where she had hoped people wouldn't instantly recognize her. Even if that had not exactly worked out as well as she had planned, thanks to Shirou at least her own team and team Silver didn't put her on a pedestal. Now only Weiss needed to be honest with herself and realize she too had come all the way out here to escape her family name... Why else wouldn't she just attend Atlas Academy, a place where the Schnee were so deeply rooted there was a _statue_ dedicated to them on the front lawn?

So Weiss said she wanted to train? Then what else could Pyrrha do but oblige? And if there's one thing she knew all about, it was intense training. She wasn't the undefeated, four time champion of the Mystral Regional Tournament on a whim, after all.

* * *

Despite that his planned schedule for this saturday morning had been completely and utterly ruined, he couldn't help but be amused. After making his way back to Beacon Academy and sneaking around the edges of the campus towards the building his workshop was located in, he had found himself disbelievingly staring out of the large windows, enjoying the sight.

He had made sure he stayed away from both the line of sight of his own team's dormroom and Pyrrha's regular morning exercise area to avoid attention. It wouldn't quite do to have to explain why he was back on campus when he was supposed to be in Vale. Walking out of the Emerald Forest first thing in the morning with a large coil of spidersilk wrapped around his body, no less.

Everything had gone surprisingly smoothly. From the execution of his plan to deal with the Broodmother and its horde, to making his way to his workshop. It had all gone without so much as a hitch. Of course, as soon as he had plopped down the gathered silk and looked out the window to guess whether Pyrrha had finished her routine and went back inside yet, as it wouldn't do to take unnecessary risks, he caught sight of something unexpected.

Right outside the building he was in, team Sunray in its entirety was being led through a _rigorous_ training regiment by their resident reincarnation of an Amazonian warrior-queen. Pyrrha ruthlessly egged them on, leading by example. Nora seemed to excitedly follow her movements, albeit somewhat sloppily and without paying any real attention to what they were doing - as usual, whereas Ren seemed about ready to faint. Weiss was by far the most amusing sight, he had to conclude. She was trying. She really was. But it was clear she wasn't at all used to intense, physical exercise.

She was drenched in a layer of sweat, and heaving heavily as she dutifully pushed herself to keep up with Pyrrha's instructions. It was getting to the point where he was seriously considering whether he should drop his cover and get her to take a breather. Oh well, he had faith in Pyrrha. She knew what she was doing, so he would just have to trust her she wouldn't get her captain killed. Amusing as '_death by morning exercise_' would be.

He had snuck out the back of the building, making his way to the Bullhead docks to catch a ride back to Vale. He had felt victorious, in a sense, as he realized while making his way there he would be just in time to catch the seven AM flight. Of course, that was when his blasted E-rank luck decided to rear its ugly, unwanted head. For some incomprehensible reason, his team; Ruby, Yang and Velvet - were all gathered around the Bullhead, enjoying the morning breeze and sunshine as they waited for the scheduled departure time.

This was actually the earliest he had ever seen either one of them awake. And they were fully dressed and _outside, _no less! Despite knowing he would have to wait for the next Bullhead, which wasn't scheduled to leave until eight AM due to it being a saturday, as he did _not_ feel like explaining he went on an Elder Grimm hunt at night - he was a proud team captain. For whatever reason, his team had decided to get out of bed at a respectable time, without even needing his help!

Even if he felt a slight sense of foreboding as to _why_ exactly they were up this early, but he mercilessly crushed that stray thought. He didn't want to taint the pride he felt. Letting out a deep sigh, he started on his way back to his workshop. He might as well get some minor work out of the way as he waited.

* * *

His E-rank luck hadn't been contend with just that minor hiccup. Oh no. Let it be known that Fate is a fickle mistress, and that rolling with the punches she dolls out might anger her further. The eight AM Bullhead had some technical difficulties, which resulted in a replacement needing to be called in. As such, it wasn't until eleven AM that he finally arrived back at his apartment.

As he announced his return and put away the groceries he had stopped to purchase, considering he had been mostly out of food and drinks due to essentially having moved to Beacon's dorms, he was greeted by silence. A little confused, he looked around the living room and found it empty. While he obviously wasn't keeping her prisoner at his place, he had wanted to further discuss the White Fang and possible ways of dealing with them with the cat Faunus.

Having someone with insider knowledge could be invaluable, after all. And then there was the fact she was actively being targeted by one of the terrorist organization's leaders. She wouldn't know it, of course, but the Bounded Field around the otherwise deserted apartment building made it perhaps the safest place for anyone on the run to be. As he called out her name a few times, he figured with some sadness that she must have decided to take her leave. He knocked a few times on his bedroom door and called out once more to make sure she really wasn't still in there.

Getting no reply, he made his way inside, only to stop in his tracks as soon as he opened the door. Lying on his bed, with the blankets presumably kicked off of her somewhere during the night, was a certain, raven-haired Faunus. Had she still been covered by the blankets, he might have felt a content smile tug on his lips as he took in the uncharacteristically peaceful expression on a face he had only seen wearing a look of exhaustion and wariness up until that point.

As she was not in fact covered by said kicked away blankets, he was treated to the sight of two fair-skinned legs, sticking out from underneath the oversized shirt he had laid out for her to don as makeshift sleepwear. It would seem she had opted to altogether forego the sweatpants. She must have been fidgeting during her sleep, as the shirt had unwittingly been pulled up a ways above her waist, exposing her black lace panties and well-toned midriff. It took him a good few seconds longer than he would ever care to admit before the gears in his head started turning once more and he managed to quietly, if hastily, make his exit.

Perhaps if he had had any sleep that night, instead of moving from one fight to the next and running all around Vale in the process - and perhaps if it hadn't been _at least_ a year since he and Rin had ended things, and about nine months since a certain night of passion, erh, P_rana transfer ritual_ with Luvia on the Egypt-job... - he might have noticed the slight twitching of two black cat ears in-between his guest's raven hair as he opened the door to his bedroom. Never mind the amused smile that found its way onto her face as he stood rooted in place in the door opening.

However he did not, as circumstances would have it. No, instead he simply decided to focus his mind, or whatever portion of his mind he could command, on something else. Something more productive. Like... Like preparing breakfast! Yes, that sounded like the perfect way to get the long, smooth legs of his housegue- _off. of. his. mind_. And let it be known that he had already felt like cooking up a veritable feast, and wasn't doing so out of a slight sense of guilt! Nope, guilt he may or may not have been feeling had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all...

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

There we have it, folks! Blake ends up at Shirou's apartment after the conclusion of last chapter's encounter with dear old Adam and we even get a bit of glimpse into the 'morning after'. As well as a hint of her rather... Mischievous tendencies? Ruby is steadily getting fed up with her partner's secretive ways, and decides to take matters into her own hands - but perhaps coming to Yang, of all people, hadn't been the brightest of moves... And meanwhile, Weiss is trying to force teamwork down the throats of her teammates.

"_What the hell, Grafian? No Glynda this entire Root be damned chapter?!_" *shrugs* What can I say? It's Shirou's own damn fault for forgetting he had promised to make her dinner this weekend...

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Curses...? Let me know in the reviews or via a PM :)

**Notice: **I'm still looking for beta readers O:) !

**If you're interested in reading more of my stories, please do check out my profile page! There you can find my 'Fate Salvation' (95k+) fic, of which chapter 7 is currently being worked on, with chapter six released only a few days ago. My 'Tempered Nerves' fic has been a bit slow and is still stuck at chapter 1, but don't fret, I haven't abandoned it. It just feels like a waste to not focus on Shared Ideals and Salvation while there's still wind in those sails :)**


	5. Chapter 5 - Weekend (1)

**Author's Note**

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Chapter five has arrived, dududuuumm! Just to calm everyone's nerves: **this will NOT be a Harem story**. There, I said it :P Also guys and gals, don't worry too much about Jaune. He won't become an integral part of the story, but he will have a part to play nonetheless. Now, what else should I talk about... Oh eh, just a reminder that while I've been pumping out these chapters at a decent speed lately (if I do say so myself), it won't last forever ;p University started up again, so my time will be more limited from here on out. Don't worry too much though, I do plan to keep regularly updating. I'm _planning _weekly updates, but planning has never been one of my talents O:) Anyways, I hope you'll enjoy chapter five! (And I hope you won't riot, fufufu~)

**Hey folks! I'm looking for Beta Readers** **for 'Shared Ideals', as well as for my other recent Fic; 'Tempered Nerves'. If you're interested, please do send me a PM!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Fate/Stay Night, nor RWBY.**

* * *

**Reviews**

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**Roland's Blade - **Don't worry, this won't be a Harem fic, and not every female character will end up hopelessly pining away at Shirou :P

**Bruce USSR - **They might be a little too familiar for the Fate fans, I will admit, but it's still early on in the fic :) I have a document where I add in weapons/noble phantasms whenever I encounter, or come up with one that feels like it could be fun to incorporate in a fic. This doc includes a large number of custom ones based on weapons from Arthurian and other legends. Caladbolg and Hrunting are staples for Shirou/Archer. It's hard to pick another weapon when they are perfect choices for a given situation, but their relative destructive abilities do limit him, especially when trying to keep his Magecraft on the downlow... So expect some different ones in the future ;)

**Demonraily - **I haven't actually mentioned it, but I suppose we'll just have to wait and see when Shirou discusses that? O:)

**Mythanime - **Shirou as a Combat Class instructor could have been fun, it's just not something that would work in the larger plotline I've got planned out :) Ozpin is illusive and perhaps a little strange when it comes to some of his choices, but he does have a plan. Whether it's a good one, that remains to be seen...

**Celian Cogitore - **In the show I believe it's said that they weren't actually quite sure _how_ Grimm kept multiplying. The fact that they fall apart into nothingness when they are killed doesn't help with that. But yes, there are creatures that simply spawn more of them, dropping them from the sky like some kind of portable Grimm-babymakers. The way I looked at it, if there's one species that can use their ichor to spawn more Grimm, there can be more :) The Broodmother just does it less efficiently. A more restricted version only capable of making more Arachnides.

**Guest ****\- **In regards to Ruby 'crushing' a little too quickly on Shirou, given that she's 15... Perhaps I worked that in especially _because_ she's 15? :P Don't tell me you're unaware of how easily crushes come to be in high school? O:) Older guy, reasonably good looking, incredibly nice to her, fellow weapons-nut... Myeah.

**Littica Marek - **No arguments here :)

**All Other Reviews - **Thanks for the comments, critique, advice and speculation everyone :) Really gives a mental push to roll out another chapter. And the more discussion and speculation there is, the more it makes me think about the plotline and what's still to come, which is immensely helpful!

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**Chapter 5 - Weekend (1)**

* * *

To say she was frustrated, would be an understatement. Sending her out on such a... lowly task. _Her_! Out of all his goons and minions, what on Remnant made him feel like she would be best for this job... She'd been with him for years, loyally assisting him on his various idiotic jobs, pulling his clumsy, overconfident ass out of the fire whenever he screwed up. And now here she was, scouring around Vale, looking for some Faunus girl who dumped that hothead Taurus and had the entire White Fang-division of Vale restless.

Honestly, she didn't understand why they had to assist them in something clearly personal, but _he _asked it of her, so she acquiesced... She really needed to work on saying no to him. Letting out a deep sigh, she continued on her walk around the commercial district of Vale. It would make sense that she would need to at least buy some new clothes, her apartment was left behind, riddled with bullet holes and under constant surveillance. But apart from that, how would she know where to find the girl!?

As she rounded a corner, she was almost immediately knocked on her behind by a red and black blur. Before she could angrily gesture at the idiotic fool for just running around corners like that without looking (conveniently forgetting she hadn't really bothered to look herself), the blur in question, which took on the shape of a person amidst a flutter of... Rose petals? Fervently started apologizing as she all but pulled her back on her feet.

"I-I'm _so _sorry! I wasn't looking a-and I I know that's stupid, but I was looking for my sister and my other teammate they just kind of disappeared... Are you alright? You didn't break anything, right? Uhm, let me see - OH NO!"

As the girl practically spun her around to inspect the damage she caused, Neo couldn't do much but go along with the hyper-active, raven-haired teen. When she let out a rueful shout, however, Neo carefully followed her line of sight to the back of her white, tail jacket. Right over the part covering her behind, there was an almost perfectly circular, brown stain. As she felt her mood darken _considerably_, she looked at where she would have fallen down and with some relief concluded that it wasn't actually shit, just mud...

When she was about to smack the insolent child, who in all honesty was probably the same age as Neo, on her head with her umbrella, the girl suddenly started dragging her off in a blur of motion, completely catching Neo off-guard. She managed to hear her shout something about 'taking care of everything' and 'Yang is going to love you!' and something that gave her the shivers when she managed to pick it up as they rounded another corner, somehow two streets further down the road already - '_maybe Shirou will let us keep you!'_

When the excitable girl stopped to look around and clearly tried to figure out where they were, Neo truly regretted not being able to talk. She couldn't just knock her out in broad daylight, that would only make a scene, which Roman probably wouldn't appreciate. She had to keep a low profile, after all. When the girl let go of her hand, she smiled out of relief and quickly activated her Semblance, leaving an illusionary double of herself behind as she dashed away in a mad rush.

Only to bump headfirst into a wall. Or as she looked up in a slight daze, another, taller girl sporting a wide grin. Her blonde hair waving behind her in the light breeze as she crossed her arms across her _considerable_ chest, something Neo had to admit she could appreciate. But what really pulled her attention, and unwillingly made her gulp, were her purple eyes - which slowly started shifting to an ominous shade of red...

"You..." the strange girl built like a gods be damned steel _tank_ started. "...Are... ADORABLE!"

While Neo was stunned into silence, which she found morbidly ironic since she couldn't talk in the first place, the blonde dragged her back to the girl she had just managed to escape from(who was hurriedly looking around for her) and started _squealing_. Yes, honest to the gods _squealing_.

"RUUUBEEES~! Do you think Shirou will let us keep her!?"

'_Oh no... There's two of them!'_ was all Neo could think to herself in horror as she tried - and failed - to escape the blonde's iron grip. Looking behind them, she found an apologetically smiling bunny Faunus trailing after them. The girl clearly wasn't comfortable with the blonde's actions, but when Neo shot her a far more desperate and pleading look (which she would forever after deny having made), the bunny Faunus ruefully shook her head and clearly mouthed _'I'm sorry...'_.

Neo Politan could do little but silently regret her life choices. And most of all, she told herself she would stop following Roman's every order without question. This just wasn't worth it...

* * *

"_How are things with your house guest, Shirou? Are you going to need a few days off to… take care of things?_" Ozpin's amused voice asked him through their Scroll connection, causing him to stutter a little in his reply. It had only been a few minutes since he had walked into the bedroom, after all…

"I-I ehm… Yes." Pausing for a moment and realizing that that wasn't much of an answer, he coughed and hastily continued.

"Things have been as well as could be expected. It'll take a few days at the very least for her Aura to finish healing the wound on her head. Had I not known a few useful Healing Runes, I doubt she'd even be able to form coherent thoughts yet… As it stands, she's only got a slight concussion, so that's good, I suppose…"

He took a few moments to gather his thoughts and figure out what he was going to do next.

"I have no leads on where I might find Taurus or the possible, Valien White Fang-cell as of yet, so I'm considering just waiting until they make their next move. I truly don't think Blake was spotted by one of their members that was actively searching for her here in Vale, after all… They must have another, larger scheme going on..."

"_Alright, I'll have my informants in the law enforcement departments of Vale keep us posted on possible leads._" He started cheerfully, before following it up with an admonishment, as he so often liked to do.

"_That contract could have been taken care of sooner, though… Considering we're going into the forest with the second years on monday, you were cutting it rather close."_

Doing his best to suppress a sigh and keep his irritation with the man in check, Shirou replied as calmly as he could.

"I can't very well just walk out my team's _shared_ dorm room at night, saying 'bye girls, I'm just going to go kill an Elder Grimm now, sweet dreams!', now can I?"

"_You realize you can't keep your more… esoteric abilities a secret from them forever, right?_" He decided to point out.

Of course he knew that! That didn't make it any easier though… Knowledge of magecraft will inevitably drag someone into the Moonlit World, even if said world is noticeably less influential in Remnant… What little Ozpin managed to gather on the Magi, or rather, Wizards and Witches of this world, wasn't much better from the practices of the Clock Tower...

"_Not to mention your partner… You _are _supposed to tutor her in using those eyes of hers - and find out what other talents she might have that can be of use in the coming war. Don't forget _that _is the biggest reason for you attending Beacon Academy, Shirou. If I didn't know you better, I'd say you're enjoying school life a little too much... Don't lose track of _our _goals."_

After a curt grunt of acknowledgement, not really sure what else to reply, Shirou hung up on the headmaster that seemed to have a talent for hitting sore spots. His team mates… Especially his partner… They're really just kids. They don't know what this world, what any world for that matter, can be like. And to pull them into it so soon… It had really been weighing on his mind as of late. Ruby was supposed to become some living anti-Grimm, super-weapon… It just didn't sit right with him.

He had gotten caught up in the Holy Grail War at their age, look where it got him. An apocalyptic dimension so different from his own, he probably couldn't call it a parallel one anymore… If only he had taken more of an interest in Rin's ramblings about Zelretch's teachings… He still couldn't quite recall how he had gotten from there to here. Whenever he thought back to his last memories in his original world, he'd just get a headache, before things tapered off into a fuzzy darkness…

Sighing, he decided to just cook away his frustrations. He was fairly certain Blake would at least be able to appreciate a good breakfast… Hmm, perhaps he should try a Japanese spread?

* * *

Blake waited another fifteen minutes or so after Shirou had quietly closed the door to the room. She needed that time to calm down. Why had she done that!? She had heard the front door when he came back, although she didn't know why or when he had left. He had announced himself, several times even. And yet she hadn't made any effort to cover herself up, or even just pull down the shirt he had loaned her...

After her initial amusement about his reaction had passed, she only felt confused. She liked the occasional... 'romantic' novel, sure. Had she simply read too many of those, to the point where it had started to cloud her judgement? Or... Or was she simply waiting for the other shoe to drop? Blake had known racism and the darker side of society ever since she was old enough to understand what it meant to be 'different'.

Sure, she had met the occasional kind Human who helped her out along the way, but the greater part of her life had been an uphill battle to be treated equally and fairly. For a Human to jump in between fighting Faunus simply because, as he had explained, she had looked like she was in trouble... It was _almost_ unthinkable to her. The idea that a Human would lecture one of the leaders of the White Fang on equality was even more absurd. And yet clearly also something that they sorely needed. Judging by the lack of a snarky or sarcastic response from her childhood friend, he too hadn't expected such a reply.

So was that why she was feeling this strange sense of anxiety? She had put herself up on display, as it were. He had helped her, saved her life even. He had guarded her while she was unconscious in the hospital and he had offered her a place to lie low. Would he now expect some kind of reward? And yet, when she had given him the illusion of vulnerability - because make no mistake, had he tried to take advantage of her, she would have kicked the living daylights out of him - nothing had happened.

After calming herself down, she got up out of bed and started to look around for her clothes. Only when she saw the blood-stained remains of her Pasta Palace uniform, did she realize she didn't actually have a fresh set of clothes of her own. Sighing, she grabbed the sweatpants Shirou had laid out for her as part of her nightwear from the chair next to the door. She hadn't touched it, as the shirt alone seemed more than enough to sleep in. Had she been in her own home and bed, she would have simply slept in her birthday suit.

She blinked a few times when she found a pair of socks tucked underneath the sweatpants. He had even already prepared those for her last night. She let out a deep sigh while she put them on. '_Honestly, maybe he really just is that kind..._' As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she slapped her cheeks to get rid of it. The last time she had trusted a Human's kindness, things had almost gone _very_ wrong for her. Back then it had been Adam who had saved her. Funny how things go...

Shaking her head, she gathered her resolve and started to make her way over to the living room. She would confront him and find out once and for all what his ulterior motive for helping her was! And if he had any ill intentions... then... she... she would... What was that _heavenly_ smell? As she drifted along with the scent of divinity, the next moment she regained her wits she found herself standing at the edge of the apartment's open kitchen. And dumbly staring at the whirlwind that was her host.

One moment he was cutting vegetables on the countertop. The next he was suddenly in front of the sink, rinsing his cutting board and knife. Somehow the vegetables had ended up in a large wok and were already pleasantly sizzling. She had only averted her eyes to look at the stove for a moment. When she looked back, Shirou was no longer standing in front of the sink, but taking a tray of salmon out of the fridge. Before she knew it, it was coated with herbs she couldn't name - even if she had tried - and in the process of being grilled. Expertly at that, from what she could tell. The cooks at the Pasta Palace had nothing on her current host.

It was at that point that she was noticed. His surprised golden eyes locked onto hers, before they very briefly flickered towards her now clothed legs. As he awkwardly cleared his throat and quickly returned his gaze to the food he was preparing, it was more than clear to Blake that he was doing his best not to think about the view she had given him.

Although… He had seemed oddly frustrated before he had realized she was there. As if he was desperately trying to get his mind off of something painful. Despite her trepidation in trusting him, she couldn't help but find his reaction to seeing her a little cute. He had this... Confident warrior persona, complete with sarcastic quips to taunt his opponents into action. But now, here in his home, he almost seemed like a different person altogether.

"A-ah, good morning Blake. I didn't realize you were up yet. Sleep well?"

She gave him a friendly smile as she replied, hopefully masking some of her turbulent thoughts. They really were all over the place this morning...

"Same to you. If I'm being honest, I don't quite recall when I last slept this long and peacefully."

He nodded a little absentmindedly while he continued with his cooking, but found the time to give her a genuine smile nonetheless.

"Glad to hear it. Why don't you take a seat at the table? Breakfast will be ready in a minute."

Not really wanting to just let him do all the work she tried offering her assistance, but he just waved her off and stated he enjoyed cooking. Such an odd figure. Last night he had moved like an experienced warrior, and now she found out he was a hobby chef in his spare time? She was fairly certain that wasn't common practice for Huntsmen... So a little reluctantly she sat down on one of the cushions around the traditional Mistralian, or Eastern, table. It was a rare sight in Vale, to even be able to find such a low table. Quietly chuckling to herself, she imagined Shirou cutting down a regular table to accommodate his preferences.

It came as a pleasant surprise to her, as her own parents had emigrated from Mistral to Menagerie before she was born. Such a simple thing, a table... And yet it briefly served to bring back fond memories of home. A home she had abandoned when she went along with the more militant, younger generation of the White Fang against her parents' warnings and wishes. If only she had listened back then...

She was pulled from her thoughts by the quiet buzzing sound of a Scroll notification. She had left hers in the bedroom, so she realized it wasn't hers. She quickly tracked it to the one lying across from her on the table. It would be impolite to see what it was... But maybe it was urgent? Yes. She would just sneak a peek and bring it to him if it needed his attention. And besides, it kind of was his own fault for not setting a passcode if she could just open it. Right?

It turned out she didn't even need to touch the device, only steal a glance. A notification had popped up and it took her a few moments to read the message upside-down, as she didn't want to give away her sneaking by moving it. When she had finally deciphered it, her eyes went wide.

_"Valien Hunters' Association_

_\- Office of Contract Administration -_

_Termination Contract (Skull Rank)_

_'Arachnide Broodmother - Emerald Forest'_

_[Proof of Completion] - Received at: '05:28'_

_Payment transferred to registered account: 15.000 Lien"_

Blake wasn't a Huntress, but she had been in her fair share of fights with the Grimm. She had encountered the fairly common Arachnides before, which weren't all that troubling. But she had never personally witnessed a Broodmother... She knew what it meant, though. An Elder Grimm. More specifically, an Elder Grimm that could sacrifice part of its own body mass to spawn _more _of its kind. Like a spider laying eggs...

She had never heard the term 'Skull Rank' before, but she assumed it was just some type of classification made up by the Association to rank contracts based on their threat level. While there could easily be several ranks above 'Skull' for all she would know, it at the very least didn't seem to indicate anything simple or easy. And damn, that payment is more than she would have earned at the Pasta Palace in a full year. She should look into doing some Grimm-hunting work… She was fairly certain there were more people than just licensed Huntsmen doing it. So why shouldn't she be allowed to?

Wait a minute… Judging by what she assumed was the timestamp, Shirou had completed the contract early this morning. While she was still asleep. Although the fight against the White Fang in the alleyway hadn't been overly lengthy, it must still at least have been _somewhat_ tiring. From there he went to the hospital with her, before taking her here... And between when she fell asleep and now he had travelled to the Emerald Forest, slain an _Elder Grimm_, and returned with groceries roughly ten minutes after she had woken up. And now he was serving her breakfast.

What kind of monster was her host? Sure, he had shown he could fight, as even Adam had seemed wary of taking him on after his entourage had been taken down, but this? This was _inhuman_. Who was 'Shirou Emiya' really? When he took a seat opposite her, however, her attention was pulled to the table in front of her. When had he...? There were well over a dozen different small dishes spread out across the table. Most of them fish-based... The scent alone made her mouth water. Seeing her awestruck expression, her host chuckled, causing her to faintly blush in embarrassment. As he gestured for her to dig in and started to calmly put a little of each dish on his plate, she eagerly obliged.

After the first bite, any and all thoughts drifted far to the back of her mind. This food... It... It tasted even better than it smelled! The salmon, oh gods the salmon! She hadn't realized it until now, but it was nearly noon already and due to the ambush that had been waiting for her at her home the other night, she hadn't eaten since the meager pasta bowl provided to her at work.

Ever since leaving home she had lamented the loss of her mother's amazing cooking. It might have been due to how bland her food had been since, but... No. She was certain. Shirou's cooking was on an entirely different level! This... This was what you expected from the most expensive of restaurants! She didn't quite recognize all of the strange and wonderful dishes presented to her, but she loved each and every one of them. She only had a moment's worth of hesitation before biting down on what appeared to be raw fish, rolled up alongside rice in seaweed of all things - but it was beyond her wildest expectations!

As she devoured her breakfast with gusto, a brief flicker of a thought crossed her mind. What if Shirou was some kind of evil mastermind, using his god-like cooking skills to trick her into a calm sense of security? No! She needed to keep her guard up! But... But... The food... It was just _so good. _She stole a brief glance at her host before shifting her gaze back towards her plate, only to do a double take as she found his seat empty. H-how? Was she so distracted by the foreign flavours and textures that even her Faunus ears hadn't registered his movements?

She was pulled from her confused thought spiral by the previously missing host, nay, _chef_ \- putting down several more small dishes. Oh gods... At this point she wouldn't even care anymore if he had an ulterior motive. Whatever price he would exact upon her for this share of heaven, she would gladly give up.

* * *

As Neo somewhat happily took licks from a Neapolitan ice cream cone that the girls had decided was _too _perfect for her look _not_ to treat her too, she had to admit to herself; this could have been worse. She had half-heartedly attempted to deny it, but once she actually saw the ice cream cone being made, she figured '_ah, why the hell not?_' The girls had cleaned off the stain on her jacket, saving her the trouble of doing it later. When she had stayed silent to their _many_ questions, it was the bunny Faunus who eventually had had an epiphany, figuring out that she couldn't in fact speak.

To Neo's surprise, the girl started gesturing in sign language. It wasn't often that she had the chance to actually _talk_ to someone, so after some consideration, she had decided to humour the girl. Thus she got to learn that Ruby, Yang and Velvet were three-fourths of Team Silver. Beacon students. Huntsmen may have become a type of law-enforcement in recent years, and Neo may be a wanted international criminal alongside Roman, but she didn't actually bear the Huntsmen as a whole any ill will. She too had an enemy in the Grimm, after all, and knew far too well what happens when there's nobody around to keep them at bay...

Without really getting a chance to object, the two sisters (not that she really got that, given their wildly different appearances) had already decided that she was to come along on their shopping spree. She had initially intended to make a run for it after leaving behind an illusion when they looked away, but something - or rather, _someone_, made her hesitantly change her mind.

Velvet. The girl was far more reserved than her teammates, and seemed to really enjoy talking with her through sign language. From what she had shared, apparently her grandmother was deaf and she had taken to learning it to surprise her. Before she could actually use the hard-earned skill to converse with her, however, the village her grandmother lived in was attacked and wiped out by a Grimm attack...

Neo couldn't help but feel some kind of kinship with the bunny Faunus. Sure, a lot of people had lost loved ones to the Grimm... But Neo had never really been able to _talk_ about it. Roman knew sign language, but the two of them, while trusting each other explicitly, never talked all that much about personal things. Not that she minded, of course, since she really didn't want to talk to such things with him...

But this admittedly loveable Faunus girl seemed to pull on some of long thought forgotten strings of her heart. As she silently laughed along with the girl's giggles after Ruby tripped face first into the shopping mall's fountain, she started to wonder whether she could... maybe... make a friend? When had she last actually called someone 'a friend'? Before... Before her village had... And before Roman had found her amongst the ashes of her h-home...

Seeing her conflicted expression, Velvet gestured towards her with a slightly worried expression. 'Are you alright? I mean... I-if we're just dragging you around and you have more important things to do... We'll understand. I'll make sure those two let you leave if you want to...'

She didn't quite like the two sisters, funny as their interactions were, but Velvet... She wouldn't mind seeing her again. The part of her that knew she wouldn't be in Vale forever, and that Roman perhaps wouldn't appreciate her loitering around while on the job, was forcefully shoved down as she felt a small smile curl across her lips. She was _always_ working... Maybe... Maybe she would just take the day off? Roman slacked off all the time himself, she had earned as much.

Neo took a deep breath and calmed herself down a little. It wouldn't do to get emotional now... With a nod, more to herself than to her conversational partner, she asked her in sign language 'I'm okay, where to next, Velvet?' The radiant smile the girl gave her in response as she started guiding her to the next shop, made her heart confusingly flutter a little more than she was comfortable with...

H-had those brown eyes shining with joy, seemingly perfectly complimenting her pale skin, always looked so... mesmerizing? Whatever she was feeling confused her a great deal... And yet she still found herself unable to keep a smile off of her own face as she hurriedly followed after her. All thoughts of black cats and missions forgotten for the moment.

* * *

Shirou was glad he had prepared extras. He had made liberal use of Reinforcement to enhance the flavours of his dishes, something he mostly tried to avoid, as it felt a little like cheating. That day, however, he had done it regardless. Was it guilt? Of course not. Don't be absurd. All he could agree on with himself, was that Blake had gone through _a lot_. That much both Taurus' blade and her own had told him. And he was fairly certain there had to have been a lot more he hadn't been able to witness from the weapons.

He had mostly prepared fish-based dishes, having assumed that as a cat Faunus, she might be partial to them. While he hadn't been sure whether that was appropriate, as it was a kind of stereotyping, he was glad to see his hunch had paid off. He could've sworn he heard her quietly moan a few times as she took a bite out of a dish she hadn't tried before, but he would deny it, if anyone had inquired about it. One does not date Tohsaka Rin for any amount of time without considering self-preservation in the most mundane of circumstances.

Perhaps he had overdone it with the flavour Reinforcement? This was probably in the top three of the most over the top reactions he had ever received as a result of his cooking. By the root, were those tears of joy? He just shook his head watching the antics of the Faunus girl sitting across from him.

About half an hour later they had, with Blake having insisted on helping him, finished cleaning up the mess caused by his cooking storm and we're having some tea at the table while the Faunus in question kept contently rubbing her belly with a blissful expression on her face. While he kept quiet about it, he could've sworn he heard faint purring noises coming from here direction every so often.

"So Blake..." Shirou eventually started, getting the girl's amber eyes to once more focus on him as she realized his tone had gotten a little more serious. "If you don't mind me asking, what is it you're planning to do now?"

He noticed her stiffen up a little as she straightened her back. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, clearly intent on saying something, before thinking better of it. Eventually, her ears almost flattened atop her head as her shoulders sagged and her eyes drooped down to stare at the empty tea cup in her hands. While her voice remained neutral, and could have easily been misconstrued as 'calm', he could tell by the volume, or rather the lack of it, that she was more concerned than she was willing to show.

"I... I don't know. I came to Vale to get away from the White Fang. F-from my... mistakes."

He could tell she had more to say, but was trying to either find the right words, muster up the courage to do so, or perhaps a bit of both. So he just nodded and calmly waited for her to continue as he poured her some more tea, to which she flashed him a tiny, grateful smile. After taking a few sips and continuing to cradle the warm beverage in her hands, she continued. This time with a little more conviction.

"I'm planning, or maybe... I _was_ planning to try and enroll at Beacon Academy next year. Considering I came here with little more than the clothes I had on my back and my weapon, I figured I should find a job and save up enough money to not have to worry too much about the tuition fees..."

After a self-deprecating chuckle, that seemed a little too dark for someone still so young, she smiled at him. It was a fragile little thing.

"Of course without any acknowledged, prior form of education my options were... Limited, at best. I was 'lucky' to get a job at a Pasta Palace franchise. Even if the hours were unreasonable, the employer cruel and the wages subpar - at least they didn't pry into my history. Probably more because that racist piece of shit owning the place didn't know I'm a Faunus... But still. It was a job, and I was saving up to becoming a Huntress. I even found a place to live, small and cold as it was... It was still a home of my own. But now... Now _they_ found me again..."

Shirou silently listened to the girls story. It broke his heart a little, realizing that it sounded like she had all but given up already. He waited for a bit, but seeing she wasn't going to continue, he spoke up instead.

"So?"

The girl raised her head and shot him a confused look. Confusion quickly turned to irritation upon seeing his calm and almost dismissive expression. Irritation slowly turned to anger as she articulated each word.

"'So' what? _They. Found. Me._" She hissed as her eyes narrowed. "And you heard Adam, he has no intention of just letting me go on with my life in peace. He's going to keep hunting me until I'm _dead_! A corpse floating down the river."

Shirou just silently stated at her, letting her vent her anger. When she was done and fell silent again, clearly a little embarrassed by her outburst, he pulled her attention back to him and gave her as calm a smile as he could manage without letting his own anger towards the injustice of her situation slip through.

"Like I said, so what?" Seeing her expression shift back into anger again, he placatingly held up his hands and continued, raising his voice a little.

"You left everything behind, knowing full well that the White Fang as it exists today wouldn't just sit back and let you run off. What's changed? They found you? You knew that was going to happen eventually. Sure, maybe if it had been a little later you would have enjoyed the protection of Beacon and all that that entails, but is that really enough of a reason to just _give up_?"

She seemed stunned by his words and seeing no annoyed reaction coming from her, he nodded once to her, before he went on. This time in a somewhat softer and calmer voice.

"Why do you want to become a Huntress?" Seeing her irritation rise up again, he just sighed and said, "Humour me, please?"

"To... To better myself. No... To do something good with my life, for a change. I thought that was what I was doing by fighting alongside the White Fang. But all I saw was petty crime and sabotage. And then... Then one day Adam took me along on what he called my first _real_ mission for 'the cause' - like we were going to dispense justice."

She let out a remorseful chuckle as her eyes lost some of the luster they had displayed during her irritation and anger. In that moment, she seemed more fragile and... _broken_ than anyone her age, be it Human or Faunus, should be able to look. Not for the first time, Shirou inwardly cursed the state of this world. The Grimm and the countless horrors they caused. The families they ripped apart and the people they _broke_ in the process.

"We took a stolen Bullhead out to a village somewhere in the Mistralian mountains. He gave us all a rousing speech about injustice and inequality, before our 'target' arrived in sight. It was an orphanage. I was the only 'newbie' among his core group that came with us, so I was the only one that didn't quite get why we were there. As he explained it, the orphanage took in anyone orphaned by Grimm attacks on the surrounding villages of the region. Anyone save for Faunus children. No matter how young or mentally scarred they were. They would just be turned away. Left to fend for themselves...

"The plan as he told it inside the Bullhead on our way there was to 'take care' of the administrator of the place... I knew it was wrong. Heck, I had never killed anyone before that day. But they insured me that it would leave the position open to someone more accepting, friendlier to Faunus... I... I could accept that, harsh as it was..."

Shirou waited for her to continue on her own, but after a little while he realized she needed a push, so he calmly gestured for her to continue, which seemed to pull her from her daze.

"I... I didn't want to be there w-when, when Adam did _it_. So I waited around with the others, who were supposed to secure the place. It was night, so the goal was a quick in and out. No other casualties... But apparently Adam hadn't told me the whole plan... They... T-they..."

When Blake started to lose her composure, and small tears began to run down her cheeks, she lost her voice and silently sobbed in her place. After a few seconds, Shirou quietly stood up from where he was sitting. Blake just ignored it, or maybe she hadn't even noticed as she was looking at the cup in her hands. When he sat down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder for support, she was a little startled, but after a few moments she suddenly leaned into his chest.

He might not be a stranger to cruelty and violence, and he had seen more of the world - both his original and this one - than most ever would, but when it came to women... He wasn't always the brightest tool in the shed, as Rin loved pointing out whenever he tried to comfort her. So when Blake started sobbing as she clutched onto him like a lifeline and he felt her tears starting to stain his shirt, it took him a moment to figure out what to do.

In the end he just settled on wrapping an arm around her in a slightly awkward half-hug, rubbing his hand on her back in what he hoped would be a soothing motion. It seemed to do the trick, as the girl visibly relaxed, even if it was just a little. For a while they just sat there as Blake's sobbing slowly trickled down, until she was just leaning into his chest, shuddering a little. In a quiet voice filled with remorse and trepidation, she eventually continued her story of how she came to leave the White Fang. All the while keeping her head buried up against his chest, hiding her face from view.

"Before I knew what was going on... The hallways were engulfed by fire. They didn't want to better the place, replace the administrator with someone else... No. They wanted revenge. You see, most of the White Fang's members run away from their homes and families to join, if they aren't members themselves. Some of Adam's core group of loyal supporters came from the same village... A Mistralian village that was attacked and destroyed by the Grimm while they were away.

"A-and... And they had siblings. Siblings who didn't know where their brothers and sisters were, so they ended up in the system as orphans. When they found out what happened to their village, it was already too late. Officially, the orphanage had taken them in. But in truth, they had just dumped them outside, in the woods. As far as anyone knows, they didn't make it. And how could they? Far away from civilization, in an area teeming with Grimm. They wanted everyone who _did_ get taken in to suffer... And when I tried to stop them, I got a punch in the gut - both physically and metaphorically as I learned that Adam knew about it all along..."

Shirou was angry. Although he did his best not to show it. Blake seemed distressed enough as it was. A part of his mind, however, was afraid. Afraid because it didn't affect him as much as it should have. Had he really experienced that much horror of what people were capable of that he had become desensitized to such needless violence?

Even if he did wish he could exact some karmic retribution on the White Fang members in question, painfully and slowly if possible, a few years ago he would have been physically sick after hearing something so insane. Burning down an _orphanage_ of innocent children. Blake, with her face still buried in his chest, didn't seem to notice his inner monologue as she quietly continued.

"I... I managed to get some of the children out, a few dozen or so. I kept running into the fire of one of the outbuildings, but I was alone, and there were more buildings. Cries of fear and pain were coming from... from everywhere. When they stopped a-and the others were gathering up to leave on the other side of the compound, I took all the kids I had gathered at the edges of the grounds and led them into the nearby town, to a police station.

"After that... I... I thought about going back home to my parents on Menagerie, but I... I don't think I could face them even now after having been a part of _that_. However small my role may have been... So after some thinking I decided to come here, to Vale. It took me well over three months to get out of Mistral and make my way here, without any papers or money to speak of. I had to steal to survive during that time. But eventually I scrounged together enough to buy passage here."

The hand that had been moving in circles on her back had long since stopped by the shock of her story. While Shirou was mostly just lost in thought, angry at Adam Taurus, the White Fang, heck at Remnant itself - he belatedly realized that that action might be misconstrued. Which it was. Looking up and seeing his far-off stare, the way he had stiffened up, tears had once more started to well up in a pair of amber eyes.

"To you, someone who would just jump into a fight to help a stranger... You're probably disgusted by me. I-I should have known that I don't deserve help like this... I'll j-just get out of your hair. Y-you've already done more than enough. I-I won't blame you for hating m-"

As she made to leave during her self-loathing, Shirou regained enough of his wits to stop her. Crying and struggling she stood up, before Shirou pulled her back down and this time put both of his arms around her, pulling her into a hug. She struggled in place, punching his chest with her fists, but he just kept a firm hold on her as his hand once more started running across her back in circles. The strength in her punches trailed off until she was once more holding onto his shirt and quietly leaning into his chest. He stayed silent all the while, as he did his best to comfort the mentally scarred girl in his arms.

"Why?" She asked him after a little while of sitting there in silence. He wasn't quite sure how long it had been, nor did he really care. Her voice was hollow. Almost devoid of emotion, detached. The only thing that he could read from it was confusion.

"Why aren't you just letting me go? Why... do you still insist on helping someone as... as despicable as me?"

It took him some time to find the right words. And in truth he couldn't really say he managed to actually do so. Shirou was a Sword. _Not_ a therapist. Nor could he himself be described as the most emotionally stable individual, given his own distortion. But he didn't really care. Blake was at her most fragile right now from what he could tell. He... He himself had done things he wasn't proud of. But whenever he lost himself to a spiral of despair, his friends had been there. The people he cared about, and the people who cared about him - no matter how many times he had tried to push them away.

Rin, Sakura, Luvia, Caren, Ciel - heck, once after a particularly brutal mission he had gone on for the Clock Tower even Zelretch had sought him out with a bottle of whiskey. Despite knowing the old, perpetually bored bloodsucker had seen it more as a form of entertainment, their talk at the very least had done him some good. Although he would never actively try to think about the insane shit he had been shown when Zelretch, drunk off his ass despite not even technically having a functioning circulatory system, had thrown the both of them into a world on his 'Top Ten Dimensions When Drunk'-list...

"I have done things I'm not proud of myself, Blake..." He started after letting out a _deep_ sigh and stuffing those last, resurfacing memories in a dark corner of his mind.

"I have seen things that would make your hair stand on end and make you realize that people can be far more evil than even the oldest of Elder Grimm on their worst days..."

Seeing her slightly confused and worried amber eyes peering up at him from her position practically in his lap, he showed her a gentle smile as he chuckled, remembering the many times Rin had set him straight. Or the rare few times that Sakura had lost her temper with him when he was a little too self-loathful in her opinion. Even Luvia's constant flirting would always be different, more mellow and forced whenever he was feeling down. Trying to provide him with some sense of normalcy perhaps.

Caren would always quote some deep, profound passages out of the Bible, and in her own way try to cheer him up by taking him to supernatural fight clubs... It had always somewhat confounded him how she, a nun of the Holy Church and one a few years younger than himself at that, seemed to be so familiar with the people there... Or the occasional wicked grin she displayed whenever someone royally got their ass handed to them in the ring. Ciel on the other hand would force him to make her _a lot_ of curry, knowing he loved cooking and how it would get his mind off of things. Even she cared, loathe as she was to actually admit it.

"...But whenever I was at my lowest, there were always people who insisted on helping me, on taking care of me. In their own funny, little ways... If it wasn't for them I honestly don't know if I'd have had the strength to keep going."

"It seems like you're in somewhat of a similar situation right now. With the difference being that you're... well, all alone here in Vale."

He watched her expression slowly shift from confusion, to disbelief - and finally gratitude as her eyes, previously having become lackluster and dull, regained some of their colour. Small tears once more started to form, as her lips curled into a watery smile.

"So... If you'll let me, I'll be there for you in whatever way I can help. Take the advice my friends had to hammer into me; you don't have to do everything on your own."

She seemed to carefully study his face for a few seconds, before she slowly wiped away her tears with her arm - and suddenly locked her lips with his. After a few seconds, she pulled back, even if only just a little bit, while Shirou just sat there wide-eyed and stunned.

"I-I... I.. Uhm..." He managed to start stuttering despite the unexpected turn of events. "Y-you're in a f-fragile state of mind, right now, Blake... Y-you shouldn't d-do anything you'd regret later on... I meant more l-like, letting you stay here a-and helping you with your White Fang trouble. I a-also think I could maybe give you a hand with your Beacon e-enrollme-"

The raven-haired cat Faunus cut him off, however, by putting an outstretched index finger on his lips. All the while stunning him with the slightly hesitant, yet seductively beautiful smile she showed him as he absentmindedly noted her cheeks had taken on an almost vibrant shade of red.

"You said you'd be there for me. I-in whichever way you could help, right?" she asked him with a slightly shaky voice. Shirou just nodded slowly, still not quite having his mind wrapped around what just happened.

"A-and... The girl you were talking to on your Scroll, back at the hospital last night... R-ruby, was it? She isn't... you know... your, eh, girlfriend?"

All he could do was shake his head and keep staring back into her amber eyes. His wordless reply seemed to help with her confidence, as she closed her mesmerizing eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, he found no traces of her previous hesitation left in them, making him audibly gulp under their sudden intensity.

Shirou might be as close to a 'Sword' as was humanly possible, but that didn't mean he was immune to the allure of a beautiful woman, which Blake undoubtedly is. It had been over nine months since… Since that night with Luvia. And he had been increasingly frustrated as of late… And the way she's biting her lip… No! H-he shouldn't, it's completely inappropria-

"Then... I'll have you take responsibility..." She stated in a seductive, yet firm voice as she now fully moved to sit on his lap, with one of her legs on either side of him. Cupping his cheek with her hand, while having her other draw circles along his chest, she once more moved in to kiss him.

As their lips met, Shirou's last bit of rationalism and willpower capable of withstanding the beautiful woman throwing herself at him, vanished.

* * *

Roman looked at his Scroll. Or rather, the text message his ward Neo had sent him a few minutes ago, after his request for a status update. She claimed she was tracking down a lead on the cat girl and probably wouldn't be back until later in the evening... He felt a genuinely warm smile curl across his face as he peered over the edge of the device, through the window he was standing in front of.

There he saw the teen he had pulled from a fire _smiling _as she followed after a bunny girl and her friends, excitedly conversing in sign language. It wasn't even a cruel or wicked smile, but a happy one. Roman knew that they had to help that insufferable hothead Taurus find his lost ex-girlfriend so he could play out some misguided revenge fantasy, but despite the lack of progress, he found himself not caring.

No... As the four girls entered some clothing store, with Neo excitedly looking around, he couldn't care less about Taurus and his White Fang rabble. Roman was many things. A master thief, incredibly beautiful (according to himself), and an excellent fighter. But a good father-figure? Meh. He couldn't really claim that. Despite that, he had done his best to take care of Neo when he found her in the remains of a small village he had been passing through to make a... less than legal business deal. The only survivor of that tragedy, from what he had been able to tell. She was only eight at that time, and he had initially decided to just... leave her behind. Hell, he was a professional crook, he couldn't be expected to take care of a little girl!

But those big, empty eyes... Looking around her, as if she didn't quite understand what was going on. Eyes that despite the lack of emotion in them, rapidly shifted all across the colour spectrum. She looked... Dead, on the inside. Whatever goodness he had left in his shriveled up, black heart, made him pick her up before he made for the nearest settlement. The girl didn't as much as protest. She just let him sling her over his shoulder.

He... He would just drop her off at a police station, he kept telling himself. Yes... He might have been a crook, but he wasn't a monster, after all. When he had dropped her off, or intended to anyway, her tiny, bandaged up hand had grabbed onto his sleeve, keeping him from leaving her behind. Her eyes, having settled on his own green colour, held a little more life in them... With a deep sigh, and after having made sure the police were out of earshot, he had asked her whether she was sure she wanted to stay with a _criminal_ like him.

She had just looked at him, in complete silence for a few seconds. Before she opened her mouth and tried to speak - only for nothing to come out. The girl seemed momentarily confused, before she closed her mouth again and just nodded once. He had let out a deep sigh, before taking her small hand in his own. "Fine, brat" he had tiredly muttered out. As they left the police station when the officers were looking away, considering he couldn't exactly officially adopt her with his criminal-status, he carefully eyed her from the corners of his eyes. While she still held that... lifeless, lackluster look in her eyes, her tiny lips were curled in a nigh-imperceptible smile.

While he couldn't say he had any real, parental instincts... He had always done his best to provide Neo, as he had taken to calling her after she had decided on a favourite look using her _very_ interesting Semblance - with a decent life. She had at first been left behind in a safehouse whenever he went on a job, but soon she had asked - nay, insisted - that she'd come along with him. When he, somewhat annoyed, had asked her why she wanted to come along, she had simply gestured in the rudimentary sign language she had been learning that she wanted to help him.

Now, however, he saw the young girl that had grown up on the road with him walking around with other girls her age... Almost... Almost as if that tragedy had never happened. He would let her have her fun, as long as it would last. Because he knew all too well that if those girls found out what Neo had been doing these past few years, they might never look at her in that same, innocent way...

* * *

Slightly dazed, Shirou craned his head to the side as he looked out the window. It was getting dark already. By the root, how long had they been at it? As he looked over at the peacefully sleeping girl, lying on his chest, he found himself smiling. He had intended to get started on some basic questions about whatever Blake would know about the organization chasing her, perhaps formulate the start of a plan to deal with them. But he honestly couldn't find himself caring any less about that at the moment.

As he pulled her closer with one arm, he used his free hand to wipe some of her raven hair away from her forehead. The two similarly coloured cat ears twitched a little, as the girl drowsily opened her amber eyes - halting the slight, barely noticeable purring that had emanated from her moments prior. A satisfied smile made its way onto her face. They looked into each other's eyes for a few moments, before they both started chuckling.

"You know..." Blake drawled with a goofy grin on her face and a slight blush taking hold of her cheeks as she nuzzled into his chest. "I don't normally... eh, well, do _this_... Especially not with someone I just met, but I think I _really_ just needed this..."

Shirou opened his mouth to reply, then frowned and thought about it. She seemed to notice his hesitation and suspiciously raised an eyebrow. Her smile was a little too much like the one Rin would show whenever he was coming dangerously close to getting a Gandr-shot aimed at his face. He hurriedly decided to defend himself.

"I-I don't either, honest! I was just thinking back to the last time I... well, y-you know... And I guess that too was pretty sudden and unexpected. And she actually said the same thing..."

Blake carefully inspected his expression for a few seconds, before her lips curled into a teasing smile. "Ohoh~? I guess I found myself a womanizer then?"

He immediately denied that, because he really didn't think he could call himself a womanizer. Heck, he had only slept with three women, among them being Saber and Luvia, both having been Prana transfer rituals in potentially life-threatening situations... Only Rin he had had more developed feelings for, and they had dated for several years... He vaguely said as much, not giving away any specifics, of course, to which she made a show of humming, as if deep in thought.

"Alright then. Don't get any funny ideas, or suddenly fall in love with me, though..." She started, as she teasingly had her hand move down his chest, letting it disappear below the blanket covering them from the waist down. While said hand found its way to a part of him he had honestly expected would remain out of commission for a little while longer, but seemed to stubbornly refuse to go along with that assessment, her eyes took on a dangerous gleam while she seductively licked her lips.

The last thing she said as her lips closed in on his own at an agonizingly slow speed, was "This is _just_ sex, after all..."

* * *

**Author's Note**

* * *

Maybe not all that much action this chapter, more of a... slice of life chapter, I guess? :P We got the first of the traumatic backstory for Blake and how she came to be in the position she's currently in. Now, some might start asking in the reviews 'Is Blake in _love_ with Shirou?' 'Isn't this moving a little too fast!?' - Blake has been with a _terrorist_ organization for the better part of her later, teenage years. As the girlfriend of one of the organization's leaders. She might not have been on assassination missions before the one she spoke of, but that doesn't mean she's an innocent little kitty cat... But to answer the first question I expect to come; no. Blake is not currently 'in love' with Shirou. My interpretation of her character may be a little less innocent than in the show, but after all the shit she has been through, she finally found someone nice that helped her just out of the goodness of his heart. Add to that a more... physical attraction, as well as the love for smutty fiction I can't help but envision her reading, and well... You get what we call a one night stand. Not to mention Shirou his own frustrations... O:)

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Curses...? Let me know in the reviews or via a PM :)

**Notice: **I'm still looking for beta readers O:) !

**If you're interested in reading more of my stories, please do check out my profile page! There you can find my 'Fate Salvation' (95k+) fic, of which chapter 7 is currently being worked on, with chapter six released recently. My 'Tempered Nerves' fic has been a bit slow and is still stuck at chapter 1, but don't fret, I haven't abandoned it. It just feels like a waste to not focus on Shared Ideals and Salvation while there's still wind in those sails :)**


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